Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 22nd February, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Pune

Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on 17.02.2021 on a group based in Sangamner, Pune at 34 different locations across Maharashtra. The group entities are largely engaged in packaging and sale of tobacco and related products, generation and distribution of power, sale of FMCGs, and real estate development. 

During the course of the search operation, hand written and excel sheets maintained on computer revealed unrecorded cash sale transactions amounting to Rs. 243 crore related to sale of tobacco. In addition to this, action on some dealers in tobacco products revealed further unrecorded sale by them amounting to Rs. 40 croreapproximately.

The group is also accepting and paying cash over and above the registration value in transactions relating to real estate. Evidence of transactions amounting to Rs. 18 crorewas found in this regard. Issues relating to violations of section 50C of the Income-tax Act, 1961 amounting to Rs. 23crore have also been found.

During the course of the search operation, profit on unrecorded transactions of sale of real estate amounting to Rs. 9crore has been accepted by the assessee. Seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs. 1crore has been made. Total undisclosed income amounting to Rs. 335 crore has been detected so far.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 22nd February, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Bhopal

Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operation on 18.02.2021 at 22 premises of a Betul based Soya products manufacturing group at Betul and Satna in M.P., Mumbai and Solapur in Maharashtra and Kolkata.

During the course of the search operation, unexplained cash of over Rs. 8 crore and unexplained foreign currency of various countries amounting to more thanRs. 44 lakh have been seized.9 bank lockers have also been found during the search.

The group has introduced unaccounted income to the tune of Rs. 259 croreby way of introduction of Share capital at huge premium from Kolkata based shell companies.

The group has also introduced undisclosed income of Rs. 90 crore in its books of accounts by way of sale of paper investments in shell companies to another set of shell companies of Kolkata. None of the companies was found to be operational at their shown address and the group could not confirm the identity of such paper companies or any of its Directors. Many of these paper companies were found to be struck off by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

During the search, it was seen that bogus loss to the tune of Rs. 52 crore has been claimed by the group to suppress their profits,by indulging in intra-group out-of-exchange contract settlement. Various companies were formed in the name of employees to carry out these transactions, while there was no actual business carried out between them. Directors of these companies were not aware about any such transactions. 

The group has also claimed incorrectLong Term Capital Gains exemption of over Rs. 27 crore on sale of shares of a group entity. Investigations revealed that the purchase of these shares was not genuine as group directors purchased shares of this entity at nominal value from non-existent Kolkata based shell companies.Various types of evidence including chats among key persons of the group reflects unexplained Cash payment and hawala transactions of over Rs. 15 crore.

Incriminating evidence in the form of digital media such as Laptops, hard drives, pen drives etc have been found and seized. From the investigation so far, undisclosed income over Rs. 450 crore has been detected.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 21st February, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in J & K

Income Tax Department conducted a search & seizure operation on 19.02.2021, on a group running the biggest private Multi-speciality Hospital in Srinagar with more than 100 beds. Seven premises including 4 residential premises, all in Srinagar, were covered in the search.

The core business of the group includes running of the Hospital, Real Estate & Trading of Household Consumables. 

The group is in the practice of buying large chunks of lands in piecemeal and aggregating them. Thereafter, it develops the land and carves out plots and sells them. Evidence showing more than 50% of consideration (over & above the registered value of the property) received in cash from buyers, has been seized during the search operation. Such sale consideration received in cash has never been offered to tax.

The group has made unaccounted property transactions of more than Rs.100 crore in cash since FY 2013-14 onwards. The payments/investments made through banking channels by the buyers of plots are also under investigation as prima-facie verification has shown that the investments have not been made using tax paid income. Thus, taxes will be leviable not only on the seller group but the buyers also, depending on the facts of the cases. There is substantial default of TDS on almost all purchases & sales of land/plots.

Further, the search has revealed substantial evasion of stamp duty due to the State Govt./ Union Territory on cash paid as sale consideration over & above the registered value of the property. The information in this regard will be shared with the J & K Union Territory Authority for levy of stamp duty on the entire sale consideration, as evident from the seized documents and notification of circle rates as per the prevailing market rates.

                During the search, it was also seen that the individuals have taken a number of plots/land as gifts from various unrelated individuals and they have not shown any income on this score u/s 56 of the I. T. Act, 1961 even though the same is chargeable to tax in the hands of the donee as income from other sources. The cases of the donors are also under investigation from the perspective of evasion of income tax.

Further, one of the taxpayers of this group engaged in trading of household consumables has made cash purchases of household consumables worth Rs.2.00 crore in 6 months in FY 2019-20, in violation of tax provisions which mandate payment of more than Rs.10,000/- at a time through banking channels only.

Evidence of various Benami Properties has also been unearthed and seized during the search. The same is under investigation.

Suppression of receipts from the running of the Hospital is under investigation. The average turnover shown by the Hospital is around Rs.10-12 crore since FY 2015-16; however, seized evidence shows actual receipts to be at least four times more. Evidence showing cash payments of Rs.3.00 crore, made to various doctors in the current year, has been seized during the search.

Cash of Rs. 82.75 lakh and Jewellery & Bullion worth Rs.35.7 lakh have been seized as the concerned persons from whose custody these were found were not able to explain the same. One Bank Locker has been sealed.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 18th February, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Hyderabad

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operation on a group based in Eluru on 28.01.2021 at 21 different locations across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The group entities are engaged in Film Financing, Aqua Culture, Real estate, Distribution of Films and Money Lending.

During the course of the search operation, hand written books, agreements and loose sheets depicting undisclosed cash transactions were seized. The group is lending huge amounts in cash and collecting interest for the same in cash, which are undisclosed. It is also observed that certain entries totaling to Rs.13 crore were deleted from the cloud data, but recovered. A major suppression of income from distribution of films and running theatres has also been observed. The group is also accepting cash over and above the registration value in sale of plots.

Total assets worth Rs. 17.68 crore which includes cash of Rs. 14.26 crore, gold Jewellery, Bullion and Silver valued at Rs. 3.42 crore have been seized so far. The highlight of the search action is the seizure of such huge amount of cash and gold in mofussil stations like Eluru and Rajamahendravaram. In total, the search has resulted in detecting incriminating evidence relating to undisclosed financial transactions of Rs. 161 crore from F.Y 2016-17 to F.Y 2019-20, taxable in the hands of both the transacted parties.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 18th February, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Bengaluru

The Income Tax Department conducted search and seizure operation on 17.02.2021 on 09 major Trusts registered in Bengaluru & Mangaluru, which are running educational institutes including medical colleges. Searches were conducted at 56 different locations across Karnataka and Kerala.

During the course of the search and seizure operation it was found that the transparent selection process to Medical colleges through NEET has been subverted by Trustees and key persons running these Medical Colleges in collusion with agents/brokers and some students who got high ranks in NEET Examination. The first stage of malpractice is that some high ranking students in NEET examination take admission to MBBS courses through state counseling (who have no intention to join the said colleges as they have secured admissions or likely to get admission elsewhere), thereby blocking seats in the medical stream in a Medical college during Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) counseling process, in connivance with Agents/ Middlemen/Converters (who provide service of converting the regular seats to Management seats). Subsequently, these students withdraw from the admission process thereby making the vacant seats available for the college management. Such seats are made available to the college management for filling up through the “Stray Vacancies Round” (seats remaining vacant or unfilled in a college after mop-up round). In this Round, the seats are filled by the college management by admitting less meritorious candidates (Low rank in NEET) after collecting huge sums as capitation fee/donations in cash which are illegal under the Karnataka Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act, 1984. The capitation fee/ Donations are collected through a network of brokers/ agents employed by the key persons/Trustees of these medical colleges.

The search operation has resulted in detecting incriminating evidence regarding cash-for-seat malpractices for admission to MBBS, BDS and Post Graduate seats in the form of notebooks, hand written diaries, excel sheets containing the details of cash received from students/brokers for admission in these colleges for various years. It was also observed that the management, faculty, staff, meritorious students and brokers are working in close nexus to manipulate the online admission process. Also, there is evidence indicating that one of the medical colleges have some sort of “package arrangement” for passing management quota students in written examination and viva voce for fixed sum ranging from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh.

Further, there is evidence which prima facie suggests that the cash money accepted by manipulating the online admission process in these colleges has been diverted for non-charitable purpose by the Trustees which is clearly in violation of Sec 12AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Apart from this, evidence has been found regarding large number of investments made in immovable properties with huge cash component attracting provisions of section 69 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. One of the colleges has diversified into the business of timber/plywood industries where evidence regardingunder invoicing has also been found.

So far, the evidence gathered indicates that Rs. 402.78 crore has been accepted as illegal capitation fees by manipulating the online admission process and the same has not been disclosed to the Income Tax Department. Searches have resulted in seizure of cash amounting to Rs. 15.09 crore. Gold Jewellery of 81 Kg (valued at Rs. 30 crore), 50 carat diamonds and 40 kg of silver articles have been found from the residential premises of the trustees and are prime facie, unexplained. Evidence of undisclosed foreign assets of Rs. 2.39 crore in Ghana has also been found apart from evidence of huge investments in 35 Luxury cars in benami names.

Further investigation is in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT