Farmers Movement Archive

I-T raids at Akali MLA Manpreet Ayali’s house, offices in Ludhiana

The income tax (I-T) department on Tuesday conducted surprise searches at the house and offices of Shiromani Akali Dal’s Dakha MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali in Ludhiana district. The raids were underway till filing of the report. Around 6am, security personnel sealed Ayali’s house soon after the income tax officials raided it. No one was allowed to enter or exit the premises since morning, it is learnt. Ayali’s properties were also raided by the income tax department in 1999. The 46-year-old MLA, who is into real estate business, owns a large chunk of ancestral land at Ayali village. Sources said the department team had made preparations in advance. Area residents said that the officials began gathering near the MLA’s premises in the wee hours of Tuesday. Mani Sharma, the officer on special duty to the MLA, said that a team of 70 persons, including I-T officials and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, simultaneously raided the Akali leader’s properties, including a farmhouse, agricultural land, party office at Mullapur Dakha and an office in Golf Link Apartments that Ayali developed. Ayali was not available for comments.Besides Ayali, I-T teams also raided the offices of other colonisers in South City and the newly developed Sun View residential colony. The residences of partners of Sun View Enclave were also raided. The raids were conducted on the directions of income tax principal director (investigation) Avdesh Mishra by teams comprising officers from the department’s branches in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Mohali and Jammu. “The details of the MLA’s assets are in the public domain. He (Ayali) had come clean in the past and the same will happen this time too,” mani Sharma said. “The government is using central agencies to harass the opposition leaders. The MLA led the agitations on several occasions to oppose the three farm laws. It was him who pressed upon his party leadership to break the longstanding alliance with the BJP,” said Sharma.In his 2019 by-elections affidavit, Ayali, a college dropout, had declared agricultural land, commercial and residential properties at different locations. He was a partner in PPR Associates II, PPR Construction, Nirmaan Builders and Developers and director in Ayali Developers and Colonisers Private Ltd, according to the affidavit.

Hindustan Times

17-11-2021

Chandigarh