Indore, April 7: The Income Tax department team on Sunday, April 7, morning raided the house of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's secretary, Praveen Kakkar ahead of ensuing Lok Sabha Elections 2019. The search operations at Praveen Kakkar's resident have been going on since 3 am today. Along with the residence, other associated places including a showroom in Vijaynagar are being the IT raids scanner. Praveen Kakkar is MP CM Kamal Nath's Officer on Special Duty (OSD).

According to NDTV sources, Nath's advisor Rajendra Kumar Miglani house in Delhi was also raided in connection with a hawala case. The duo officers quit from their posts after the election Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into effect last month. Income Tax Officials Raid Karnataka Minister's Residence, HD Kumaraswamy Calls It PM Narendra Modi's 'Real Surgical Strike'.

"I-T dept is conducting searches at 50 locations. Searches operations are underway at locations of MP Chief Minister's OSD, Ratul Puri, Amira Group, and Moser Bayer. Searches also underway in Bhopal, Indore, Goa and 35 locations in Delhi. More than 300 I-T officials conducting the searches," IT sources said to ANI.

Pictures provided by Income-Tax Sources of cash recovered during a raid at a resident of Prateek Joshi in Bhopal. I-T searches are still underway at 50 locations including Indore, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi.

Earlier on Friday, MP CM's nephew Ratul Puri was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Agusta Westland case. Questioning the timing of the ED summoning, Nath insisted that he had nothing to do with his nephew's business. "He (Puri) is independent and has nothing to do with politics, and I have nothing to do with his business. Whatever (allegation) there is, a full investigation should take place. I welcome it...but why is it emerging during elections?" Nath told reporters.

These raids come just a week after the Income Tax department raided premises owned by people linked to Congress-JDS (Janata Dal-Secular) coalition in Karnataka. This move was criticised by CM HD Kumaraswamy who alleged that its a misuse of government's power to harras the political opponents.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 07, 2019 09:19 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).