The raid was carried out on the directives of district magistrate Raj Shekhar last night at the Vivekabad colony office of Chaddha, official sources said.

One Sukhdev Singh, who was present there, said that the key of the recovered safe was with the manager, the sources said adding that eight rifles and two machines used for counting votes were recovered from the premises.

The raiding team visited the office again this morning and sealed the safe which was found to be having currency notes and took Singh in custody.

The Income Tax department on Wednesday raided Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s favourite businessman, carrying out simultaneous searches at 19 of his premises in the state and Delhi.

The raids, in Lucknow, Moradabad and Noida among other places in UP, and on his farmhouse-home in Delhi's Chhattarpur and premises in Lajpat Nagar, began at 10.30 am and were ongoing till late on Wednesday night. I-T officials said teams had been sent to Chandigarh and Punjab, where Chadha has extensive liquor and realty businesses.