The Income Tax (I-T) department has recovered ₹58 crore in cash and 32-kilogram gold worth ₹14 crore after its officials, disguised as baraatis (wedding guests) and travelling in decked up vehicles, conducted raids at multiple premises linked to two groups engaged in manufacturing steel bars in Maharashtra, officials familiar with the development said on Thursday.
The weeklong searches and raids were conducted at more than 30 locations in Mumbai and three cities in Marathwada region, I-T officials said, adding incriminating documents pointing at purportedly tax evasion and financial irregularities running in several hundred crores, have also been seized during the operation.
Acting on specific information, at least 250 I-T officials raided premises linked to two manufacturers of TMT (thermo mechanically treated) steel bars — SRJ Peety Steels Pvt. Ltd. and Kalika Steel Alloys Pvt. Ltd — spread across Jalna, Aurangabad, Nashik and Mumbai cities of Maharashtra, a senior official said, requesting anonymity.
“Suspecting massive tax evasion by certain companies involved in manufacturing of TMT bars, the tax agency on August 3 carried out a well-coordinated search operation,” the official added.
To maintain secrecy of the entire operation, I-T officials reached the various cities disguised as baraatis travelling in vehicles decorated with flowers, another official said, adding that even the local police were also not involved in the operation to prevent any leak of the information.
“After entering the cities, officers carried out searches at multiple places simultaneously, leading to seizure of the unaccounted cash and gold,” the second official said, also wishing not to be named. “The search operation lasted for nearly three days.”
Among the people whose premises were raided include some money lenders, financers and dealers, officials said.
Most of recovery was made during raids at a farm house in Jalna. A secret room inside the farmhouse, belonging to one of the groups, had huge cash stored in it, officials said. “It took more than 12 hours for tax officials to count the seized cash, mostly in denomination of ₹500. Several incriminating evidences have also been seized,” the senior official cited at first instance said.
“The initial analysis of seized evidences of both the groups has revealed that they were engaged in large-scale tax evasion, resorting to inflation of expenditure through bogus purchases from several entities. These entities have also been found to be involved in GST frauds,” said Surabhi Ahluwalia, principal commissioner of Income Tax, media and technical policy, CBDT. “Evidence has also been found of excess stock of raw materials, not recorded in the books of account, exceeding ₹120 crore.”
Further examination of evidence revealed that one of the groups also indulged in layering its unaccounted income through bogus, unsecured loans and share premium, obtained from Kolkata-based shell companies, I-T officials said.
“The search team has also detected large number of lockers of both the groups, opened in the names of employees of the companies, which were maintained with a co-operative bank,” a third I-T official said, declining to be named. “During the search operation, more than 30 bank lockers, including several lockers in the co-operative bank, were searched. Huge unaccounted cash and gold jewellery was found and seized from these lockers.”
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