Income Tax raids on residences, offices of Haryana Independent MLA Balraj Kundu

The Income Tax Department carried out raids on the offices and residences of Haryana's Independent MLA from Meham, Balraj Kundu, in Rohtak on Thursday, officials said here.

A residential building linked to his relatives in Hisar district and another one in Gurgaon which is connected to the legislator himself were searched as well, they said.

Kundu, a vocal supporter of the ongoing farmer's agitation against the new central farm laws, had in February 2020 withdrawn support to the M L Khattar dispensation in Haryana, saying he was ''deeply hurt'' with the government giving ''clean chit'' to those involved in the alleged corruption in sugar which he had flagged.

In October 2020, the Haryana Police booked him and three other people in a cheating case. The FIR was registered in Gurgaon based on a complaint from a resident of the city, the police had said.

The MLA had then hit back, saying the FIR, like another one lodged against him in January 2020, was due to ''political considerations'' and that he had been raising his voice against the BJP-led government in Haryana on various issues.

The state police had in January 2020 booked Kundu and his brother Shivraj for allegedly cheating a Rohtak resident.

When the case was registered, Kundu had claimed that he was being framed in the case due to political vendetta at the behest of a BJP leader and former minister from the state.

Kundu, who runs a construction company along with his brother, was not answering calls.