Lucknow, (Samajweekly) They were born about a decade apart. One is in his early fifties and the other in mid-sixties.
They live in the same city, share the same address and now their destiny has also been interlinked.
Piyush Jain, the perfumer who was arrested and sent to jail after substantial amount of cash was found in a raid in his house, was said to be been raided in a case of mistaken identity.
The social media claimed that the central agencies had come to raid Pushpraj Jain, also known as Pampi Jain, who is a Samajwadi Party MLC and had launched the Samajwadi ‘itr’ last month but in a case of mistaken identity, the raid was conducted as Piyuash Jain’s house. It is another matter that the raid threw up sacksful of cash, gold and silver.
The mix-up, if it did happen, could have easily happened since both the traders’ names begin with ‘P’ and both live in Kannauj.
Both are in the perfume trade and even have houses in the same ‘Chippatti’ locality.
“Piyush and Pushpraj belong to the same community. Both are Jains and the Jain community is very close knit.
Despite being in the same business and living in the same locality, they were not friends. In fact, there was a respectable distance between them. Piyush has no obvious political links though he was inclined towards BJP but Pampi was actively involved in the Samajwadi Party. He became politically famous when he launched the ‘Samajwadi Itr’ last month in Lucknow,” said Nagendra Kumar Jain, a local resident in Kannauj.
Insiders claim that Piyush Jain is a graduate and is well versed in the modern ways of business. He has diversified into other businesses and has establishments in Mumbai and Gujarat.
Pushpraj, on the other hand, has passed 12 standard and follows the traditional business rules. His business is also spread across Mumbai.
The raid, first on Piyush Jain and now on Pushpraj Jain, has opened up a Pandora’s box in Uttar Pradesh and led to a political slugfest.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav earlier claimed that the raid on Piyush Jain was a case of mistaken identity. “In a mix-up, the agencies have raided Piyush Jain who is a BJP supporter,” he said.
On Friday, when the raid began on Pampi Jain, SP MP Ram Gopal Yadav stated that “The raids are a part of election duty. The timing of the raids makes it amply clear that the raids are designed to impact elections.”
A local SP leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told IANS on Friday, “Piyush Jain and Pampi Jain may not have any relations but now they have a link that is hard to deny. Their names will be linked with each other in the days to name because of these raids.”
