CBI officials at Chautala’s residence in Chandigarh on Thursday. (PTI)

Chandigarh, May 5: The CBI today kept its lips sealed on yesterday’s raids that unearthed assets worth nearly Rs 1,500 crore allegedly owned by Om Prakash Chautala and his family.

“A case against Chautala and his family members and unknown persons was registered in April following a notification by the Haryana government. We have made some seizures. That is all,” a CBI official said.

Sources at the agency’s Chandigarh office, however, said the raids conducted in 24 places across six states had not yielded much to directly charge Chautala with gaining wealth through corrupt deals during his tenure as chief minister.

“Most of the properties the family owns were bought a long time ago. What we are looking at is benami properties acquired by the family between 2000 and 2005 when Chautala was in power. The stress is on unearthing properties under fictitious names, not the few expensive watches that we have found and the money in bank accounts. That is an onerous task,”a CBI officer said.

“From the Congress election chargesheet, it seems as if the former chief minister had a cut in every paise spent and every appointment by his government. But that has to be proved,” he added.

Haryana’s Congress government has accused the Indian National Lok Dal leader of amassing a huge amount of wealth during his regime.

But chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was instrumental in preparing the chargesheet a few months before the Assembly elections last year, is weighing his words carefully. “The law will take its own course,” he said.

Senior government officers, when asked to describe Chautala’s tenure, said he had centralised power and nothing in his regime moved without his approval. This “gave credence to corruption charges” against him, an officer said.

Chautala, who is undergoing treatment in the US, has said he would reply to the charges when he returns later this month.