ED, Income Tax raid residence of Bihar Finance Minister's close relative

Patna (Bihar): The sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (IT) are conducting a joint raid at the residence of Ajay Singh alias Karu Singh, who is the brother-in-law of the Bihar Finance Minister and senior Janata Dal-United (JDU) leader Vijay Kumar Choudhary.

According to sources, Karu Singh, who is also close to JDU national president Lalan Singh, runs a factory for making iron rods. He is a big businessman in Bihar. The ED and the Income Tax officials reached the residence of Karu Singh in the Krisha Nagar locality in the jurisdiction of Nagar Police station in Begusarai district amid tight security in the wee hours of Thursday.

"Officials of the probe agencies came from six vehicles in the wee hours. They have started conducting searches at Karu Singh's residence," sources said, adding that the ED and the Income Tax will provide additional details once the raid is completed.

66-year-old Vijay Kumar Choudhary is the Minister for Finance, Commercial Taxes, and Parliamentary Affairs in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet. Choudhary, who represents the Sarairanjan constituency, is considered to be close to CM Nitish Kumar. Choudhary is the ex-Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly and also the former chief of Janata Dal-United, Bihar. The Finance Minister is yet to react to the raid which is currently underway. The raid by ED and the Income Tax comes a day ahead of the Opposition meeting that is scheduled to take place in Patna on Friday, June 23.