New Delhi: The Income Tax Department conducted a search and seizure operation on 34 different locations in Maharashtra of a group based in Sangamner, Pune on 17 February 2021. The Group’s units mainly deal in the packaging and sale of tobacco and related products, power generation and distribution, sale of FMCG products and real estate.
During the search operation, cash transactions of Rs 243 crore were uncovered related to the sale of tobacco by handwritten and computer excel sheets. Apart from this, action on some dealers of tobacco products revealed sales of about Rs 40 crore without accounting from them.
The group is paying more than the registration value in cash and also accepting payments in real estate-related transactions. Evidence of Rs 18 crore transaction has been found in this regard. Cases related to the violation of Section 50C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 have also been reported, whose value is Rs 23 crore.
During the search operation, the profit of Rs 9 crore from unaccounted sale of immovable property has been accepted by the assessee. Unaccounted cash of Rs 1 crore was seized. The total undisclosed income of Rs 335 crore has been detected so far.
Search by Income Tax Department in Bhopal
On 18 February 2021, the Income Tax Department conducted a search and seizure operation in 22 premises of the Soya Producer Group of Betul. The campaign was conducted in Betul and Satna in Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai and Solapur and Kolkata in Maharashtra.
During the search operation more than eight thousand crore rupees of cash and more than 44 lakhs worth of currency were seized from different countries. Nine bank lockers were also found during the search.
The group took share capital of 259 crore rupees through paper investment sale through Kolkata’s shell companies at a high premium.
The group has shown undisclosed income of Rs 90 crore in its account, which came from paper investment sales of several Kolkata-based shell companies. No company was found at the address mentioned and the group did not provide any information about such paper companies and their directors. Many of these companies have been removed from the list by the Corporate Office Ministry.
During the search, it was seen that a fake loss of Rs 52 crore was shown so that the profit could be suppressed. This has been done by joining the intra group out of exchange contract settlement. Many companies were created in the name of employees to run the business while no real business was done between these companies. The directors of these companies were not aware of such business.
The group has claimed wrongful long-term capital gains exemption of more than Rs 27 crore based on the sale of shares of the group company. Investigations have revealed that the purchase of these shares was not correct as the directors of the group bought the shares of the company at a lower price from Kolkata-based non-existent shell companies. Various evidences including chat show that unspent cash payments and hawala trading of more than 15 crore rupees.
Suspicious documents such as laptop hard drives, pen drives were found and confiscated. The investigation so far has revealed undisclosed income of Rs 450 crore. The investigation is on.
Further investigation is underway.