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Money seized from Dalmiya's house

Rifat Jawaid in Calcutta

Income Tax officials in Calcutta on Thursday night said they discovered a huge sum of money from the premises of former International Cricket Council president Jagmohan Dalmiya, which they raided earlier in the day. They, however, did not specify the amount.

Speaking to reporters at the Ayakar Bhawan, Director General of IT (Investigation-East) S C Mishra said "search and survey" is still on and likely to continue throughout the night.

According to Mishra, about a hundred IT personnel took part in Thursday's raids.

"This operation is purely in connection with his income from his construction and leather business. While we have also found cash from the premises our personnel searched and surveyed; it is quite premature to disclose the items or cash discovered. You see, we will not seize those items or cash unless the cricket administrator concerned gives us a satisfactory reply. Only when he fails to justify his earnings, we will resort to the seizure of such items and cash," Mishra said.

Mishra said that the raids are in no way connected with the countrywide raids on the houses of cricketers. He described it as purely coincidence that the premises owned by Dalmiya too was raided today. He also informed that IT sleuths had recorded Dalmiya's statement on his earnings at 0830 IST in Delhi.

"Necessary charges would surely be initiated if the concerned businessman and cricket administrator's statements are found incorrect after the completion of the search and survey operation," Mishra said.

The IT chief, however, declined to comment whether the raids were related to the former ICC chief's alleged involvement in match-fixing. According to Mishra, the IT department was forced to conduct raids only after it had prima facie evidence of tax evasion by Dalmiya.

Related report: IT-CBI joint raids on cricketers, officials