40 years before Piyush Jain, Kanpur gave India its longest tax raid: 10 points

The recent tax raids by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence on Kanpur perfume baron Piyush Jain is a throwback to one of India's longest tax raids, that went on for almost three nights and two days. Those raids happened 40 years before tax sleuths knocked on Piyush Jain's door in Kanpur.

We are talking about Sardar Inder Singh, and India's longest ever income tax raids, from 1981.

Income Tax officers landed up at the door of one of India's most influential politicians back then, Sardar Inder Singh. Singh was 91 years old. He was an MLA from Punjab (1946-1951), and then a Rajya Sabha MP. Before we take you to the thrilling story of the tax raids at Sardar Inder Singh's home, here's a fun fact: the 2018 Hindi movie Raid starring Ajay Devgn was inspired by these raids.

The Raj Kumar Gupta-directed Raid had Amay Patnaik (Ajay Devgn) as IRS officer conducting a raid on Rameshwar Singh's (Saurabh Shukla) mansion in Sitagarh. The raid reaches a dead block in the initial two days when the IT team fails to break any discovery. Then, they receives a map from an anonymous person and make their way to the exact location where the wealth is hidden. First, see the trailer of the movie.

And now, to the 1981 IT raid on Sardar Inder Singh in Kanpur:

1. A BAD MORNING

On the morning of July 16, 1981, Sardar Inder Singh, 91, a prominent businessman and a former Rajya Sabha MP woke up to see more than 90 officers outside his gate. The officers were there to conduct a tax raid at his house. Insiders said that when the raid started at 8 am, even the IT officers were not aware of the hidden treasure they were going to discover. What was supposed to be a one-day operation, it stretched to three nights and two days, sending shockwaves across the country.

2. CAREFULLY PLANNED

The IT raid was orchestrated by Alak Kumar Batbyal, Deputy Director (Intelligence), who had gathered not only 90 officers for the job but also 200 policemen and some upper division clerks for smooth operations.

The raid was simultaneous at all the locations of Sardar Inder Singh’s family members. Other members of officer Batbyal's team were conducting raids on Inder Singh’s family in Lajpat Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Arya Nagar; some of the most prominent colonies in Kanpur. Also at the same time, the factories of Singh Engineering Works Pvt Limited, located in Fazal Ganj and Panki, were sealed and 15 lockers under different names in Kanpur, Delhi and Mussoorie were opened. It was a completely planned raid.

3. ALI BABA CAVES

Once the raid started, it was Treasure Island. All the houses and bank lockers threw up riches. By the end of the first day of the raid, the total collection in cash from Kanpur alone was a staggering Rs 92 lakh. And remember, we're talking of 40 years ago.

Apart from this, the IT team also found 250 tolas of gold worth Rs 11 lakh, two gold bars worth Rs 9.12 lakh, jewellery worth Rs 7.54 lakh, 144 guineas of Rs 1.85 lakh and fixed deposits worth Rs 7.04 lakh.

4. DELHI LOCKERS

When the lockers in a Delhi bank were opened, the department discovered Rs 72,000 in cash and fixed deposit receipts worth Rs 1.1 lakh. In all, the collection was of Rs 1.3 crore. More was to come in the next two days. In Kanpur, six more gold bars of 250 tolas worth Rs 30 lakh were recovered from two lockers. Officials have also said that bonds worth Rs 58 lakh were not seized and Rs 1.5 lakh soiled currency notes were not added to the total collection of the department from the raid.

5. WHO WILL COUNT?

The IT department led by Deputy Director Alak Kumar Batbyal had to rope in the local Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to fully count the cash that was recovered. Chief Manager of RBI, Syed Raza Zaidi, told India Today back then, “A special room was set aside and 45 people including some officers were deputed to count the cash and even then it took 18 hours." The RBI had to lend their cash vans along with armed gunmen to transport the haul.

6. COUNTING OVER

After the counting was over, after 18 hours, the Income Tax Department of Kanpur had discovered that it had collected a sum of Rs 1.6 crore in cash. Sharda Prasad Pandey, then Commissioner of Income Tax department said, ”There has never been another recovery like it."

7. BANK LOCKERS SEALED

Lockers of Punjab National Bank (Swaroop Nagar), Allahabad Bank (Swaroop Nagar), Hindustan Commercial Bank (Arya Nagar) which belonged to family members of Inder Singh were sealed and the owners of the lockers were asked to go to the bank on different days for the search.

Also, according to Prem Prakash Srivastava, an income tax officer, properties of another 15 members of the house were raided, which went on for 1 month. Notices were served to Inder Singh, his wife Mohinder Kaur, his four sons, two sons-in-law and a dozen members of the family.

8. SARDAR INDER SINGH

Sardar Inder Singh was a former Congress MP and industrialist in Kanpur who owned the first steel re-rolling mill in Uttar Pradesh. Till 1981, he owned the biggest steel mill in the state. He was also elected Mayor of Kanpur twice.

9. THE WHISTLEBLOWER

In the movie Raid (2018), it was shown that an inside member of the family led the officer Amul Patnaik towards locating the hidden wealth. Well, in reality too something of this nature occurred. Though nothing official was said on this, a leading industrialist in Kanpur who did not wish to be named had said that a family feud led to a tip-off to the Income Tax department.

10. POLITICS?

It was also found that Inder Singh’s wife was the sister-in-law of Suresh Ram, son of former Union Minister Jagjivan Ram. It is said that this is one of the reasons behind the family problems of Inder Singh. However, income tax officers have always kept quiet on this. For them, what mattered at the end of the day was the biggest tax haul in Independent India’s history.