Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 7: The Income tax department on Wednesday launched raids in several states as part of a tax evasion probe into unregistered and unrecognized political parties (RUPP) and questionable funding, official sources said.
They said raids would be conducted in Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and other states.
The tax authorities have launched coordinated action against registered and unrecognized political parties, their affiliates and operators, sources told the Press Trust of India.
The surprise move is understood to have been taken by the ministry on advice from the Electoral Commission (EC). The EC recently removed 87 organizations from its list of unregistered political parties after physical verification found them to be non-existent.
Notably, ECI had announced that it was taking action against more than 2,100 registered unrecognised political parties for flouting rules and election laws. This will include those related to filing of monetary contributions, failing to update their address and names of office bearers.
