I-T Dept sleuths conduct searches in TN, finds Rs 150 cr unaccounted cash

The Income Tax Department on Thursday said that they carried out a search and seizure operation on July 20 on two business groups - one engaged in real estate, and the other in contracts related to road and railway construction - in Tamil Nadu.

The search operation has revealed unaccounted income exceeding Rs 150 crore, an official said.

The search operation covered more than 30 premises located in and around Madurai and Chennai, and a large number of incriminating evidences including documents and digital data have been found and seized.

In the case of the group involved in real estate business, these evidences have revealed that the group has indulged in large scale tax evasion by accepting huge unaccounted cash by way of on money. The group was using a software to maintain parallel set of books of such unaccounted cash transactions.

In the case of the other group involved in the business of construction contracts, it was found that the group was involved in large scale tax evasion by debiting bogus sub-contract expenses and inflation of purchases of various raw material through self-made vouchers. In the modus operandi followed by the group, the contract amounts were paid to bogus sub-contractors through banking channels, and after withdrawal, the cash was returned to the assessee group.

Unaccounted cash exceeding Rs 14 crore and unaccounted gold and jewellery valued at over Rs 10 crore have been seized during the course of the search action, the official said. - IANS