By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/KOLKATA/BHUBANESWAR: The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on 17.09.2021 on a prominent group engaged in manufacturing of steel products. 25 premises consisting of 8 residences, 9 offices and 8 factories, spread over Kolkata, Durgapur, Asansol and Purulia and other regions of West Bengal were covered in the operation.
The search operation has led to the detection of huge quantity of incriminating documents and digital evidence from different premises. Evidences pertain to generation of unaccounted income by the group by way of unaccounted cash sales, unaccounted cash expenditure, purchase from bogus parties, under-reporting of actual production, cash purchases of scrap, several documents of land purchases and sale etc. Evidence has also been found pertaining to the utilisation of the unaccounted income in the form of unsecured loans and sale of shares of shell entities though layering of the unaccounted income. A large number of property documents pertaining to one of the members of the group, showing land and property holding in different names, have also been seized. The total amount of such incriminating evidences pertaining to the manufacturing group exceeds Rs. 700 crore. The operation has led to seizure of unaccounted cash amounting to Rs.20 lakh while 2 lockers remain to be operated.
During the search operation, an accommodation entry provider, who was providing entries to the searched group, was also covered. From his secret back office, huge number of incriminating documents pertaining to providing accommodation entries through modes like sale of shares of shell companies, unsecured loans from shell entities, bogus billing, etc. have been found, the total amount of which runs into several hundreds of crores of rupees. Evidence of more than 200 companies/entities having more than 200 bank accounts being managed from the entry operator’s premises have been found. On the basis of preliminary examination of these documents, it appears that these bank accounts and entities have been used as conduit to route the unaccounted income of many beneficiaries. Further investigations are in progress.
The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on 18.09.2021 on a leading business house of India involved in manufacture of textile and filament yarn having corporate offices in Delhi, Punjab and Kolkata.
During the course of the search operation, many incriminating documents, loose sheets, diaries, digital evidences etc have been recovered which indicate involvement of the group in routing of unaccounted funds back in its Indian entities, possession of foreign bank accounts unreported to the Department. Substantial evidence of transactions outside the books of accounts, cash transactions in land deals, bogus expenses debited in books of accounts, unaccounted cash expenditure, accommodation entries taken from entry operators have been gathered.
The group has maintained unaccounted funds of about Rs. 350 crore in its foreign bank accounts and has also routed these funds back into its business through shell entities in tax havens. The modus operandi detected was related to investment by foreign entities, under control of the group, in Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds, issued by its main concern, and subsequently under the garb of defaulting on payments, converting it into shares of the company. It was also seen that foreign companies and trusts were being paid management fees for managing the unaccounted funds. Though there is a specific requirement of disclosing foreign assets owned/managed in the form of companies and bank accounts in Schedule FA in Income Tax Returns, the same has not been disclosed by the group to the Department.
Details of accounts related to unexplained personal expenditure in cash were found to be meticulously maintained in one of the main offices of the company. Evidence has been gathered that cash of about Rs. 100 crore was generated by debiting bogus expenditure in company accounts and cash transactions in land deals.The search operation is still continuing and further investigations are in progress.
