Taxmen claim Delhi Minister evaded Rs 120 cr in tax

The Income Tax department, which carried out search operations at premises belonging to Kailash Gahlot, on Saturday said it has found documents that show the Delhi Cabinet Minister had evaded tax worth Rs 120 crore.

"We have found evidence of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 120 crore," a senior Income Tax department official, requesting anonymity, told IANS. 

The amount of tax evasion by Gahlot is a "conservative" figure as of now, the official added. 

Documents recovered from the Minister's premises show office boys, peons and other employees to have been extended loans and to be holding equity worth Rs 70 crore in several "shell" companies, the official added.

"We have also detected several benami properties in the names of employees and a huge piece of land in the name of a driver," the official said.

The official also said that the sleuths have found evidence of Gahlot's investment in a property in Dubai. 

"From one shell company director, loans and entries of about Rs 20 crore were spotted and large-scale investments in properties through General Power of Attorney were discovered," the official added. 

When contacted, the department's spokesperson refused to comment. 

Wednesday through Thursday, taxmen raided 16 residential and business premises of Gahlot and his family members spread across Vasant Kunj, Paschim Vihar, Najafgarh and Gurugram.

Gahlot holds the portfolios of Transport, Law, Revenue, Information Technology and Administrative Reforms in the Delhi Cabinet. 

Income Tax Department spokesperson Subhi Ahluwalia had told IANS on Wednesday that the raids on Gahlot and his family members related to two companies -- Brisk Infrastructure and Developer Pvt Ltd and Corporate International Financial Services Pvt Ltd. 

Following the department's raids at Gahlot's residence and business premises, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

"Friendship with Nirav Modi, (Vijay) Mallya, and raid on us? Modiji, you conducted raids on me, Satyendar (Jain) and Manish (Sisodia) as well. What happened to that? Did you get anything? Apologise to Delhi before conducting another raid on its elected government," Kejriwal had tweeted on Wednesday in Hindi. -IANS