With the Income Tax department recovering a total of over Rs 220 crore in cash during raids in places linked to an Odisha-based distillery group till Friday afternoon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the money looted from the public will have to be returned.

Modi was apparently referring to political leaders in Odisha and Jharkhand who have links with the liquor firm. “The countrymen should look at the pile of these notes and then listen to the honest ‘speeches’ of their leaders’. Whatever has been looted from the public, every penny will have to be returned, this is Modi’s guarantee,” Modi said in a Hindi post on X.