New Delhi: The Income Tax Department seized Rs 3 crore unaccounted cash during a search and seizure operation on a group based in Visakhapatnam at 17 different premises across Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Nagpur and Kolkata.
During the course of the search operation earlier on Wednesday, hand written diaries/documents and loose sheets depicting undisclosed cash transactions were seized.
In total, the searches have resulted in detecting incriminating evidence relating to undisclosed financial transactions of about Rs. 40 crore.
The group entities are engaged in extraction of vegetable oils, mining of manganese ore, and manufacturing of ferro alloys.
The group is inflating expenditure, indulging in cash sales of oil and under invoicing of slag. Transactions in the form of suppression of sales and inflation of expenditure were unearthed, the Ministry of Finance said in a release.
Further investigation is on in connection with the matter.
The Income Tax Department also carried out a search and seizure operation on a Rajkot based group, which is among Gujarat’s prominent real estate builders and developers and is actively engaged in real estate, construction and land trading businesses.
More than 40 premises were covered during the course of search and seizure operation held earlier on Tuesday.
Many incriminating documents, loose sheets, digital evidences etc. were seized indicating involvement of the group in unaccounted transactions.
Substantial evidence of transactions outside the regular books of accounts, unaccounted cash expenses, cash advances received and interest paid in cash, has been found.
Evidence of on-money payments in real estate projects-flats, shops and land deals have also been found.
Total unaccounted cash receipts in various projects of approximately Rs 350 crore have been unearthed along with corroborative evidences.
Further, evidence related to land purchase of approximately Rs 154 crore has also been found, out of which, Rs 144 crore was purportedly paid in cash.
Overall, the search and seizure operation has resulted in detection of concealment of income in excess of Rs 300 crore spread over various assessment years, which is likely to go up. Unaccounted cash of more than Rs 6.40 crore and jewellery amounting to Rs 1.70 crore has been seized from different premises.
“Furthermore, promissory notes to the tune of Rs 4 crore have also been found and seized. 25 lockers have been found during the course of the search operation which have been put under prohibitory orders. The search operation is still continuing,” the Ministry of Finance said in a release.