Uttar Pradesh tax raids and the tale of two Jains: Piyush and Pushpraj

On separate occasions, the Income Tax Department raided premises linked to businessman Piyush Jain and Samajwadi Party leader Pushpraj Jain. While the BJP and the SP exchange barbs over the raids, questions are being raised if the two Jains are connected.

Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, once declared in school textbooks as the Manchester of North India, does not make a national headline often. After Vikas Dubey’s encounter earlier this year, a raid on businessman Piyush Jain brought it to national headlines again. As it started to get clubbed with lesser headlines, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav brought it back in the news. However, Piyush Jain is originally not from Kanpur but the nearby district of Kannauj.

Akhilesh Yadav called the raid on Piyush Jain a case of mistaken identity. He alleged that the raid by the GST directorate on Kanpur businessman Piyush Jain was aimed at benefitting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is eyeing a second consecutive tenure of power in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election that is likely in February-March.