New Delhi, October 27
The Income Tax Department recovered cash and jewelry worth roughly Rs 5.26 crore after it carried out raids in several cities against hawala operators and people preparing false invoices, CBDT said on Tuesday.
The searches were carried out on Monday at 42 locations in Delhi-NCR, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa, it said.
The action was carried out against “a large network of people who execute the entry racket operation (hawala type operation) and generate large amounts of cash through false billing,” authorities said.
During the raids, 2.37 million rupees in cash and jewelry worth 2.89 million rupees were found along with 17 bank lockers that have yet to be searched, the CBDT said in a statement.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is the administrative authority of the IT department.
“The search has resulted in the seizure of evidence that exposes the entire network of entry operators, intermediaries, cash handlers, beneficiaries, and firms and companies involved.
“So far, documents showing accommodation tickets (hawala) of more than 500 million rupees have already been found and seized,” he said.
Registered gateways used various shell entities and firms to classify unaccounted for money and cash withdrawals against false invoices issued and unsecured loans granted, the Board said.
Describing the modus operandi of the tax evasion fraud, he said that personal staff, employees and associates had become bogus directors and partners of these shell entities and all bank accounts were managed and controlled by these gateways.
“The statements of such entry operators, their fictitious partners / employees, cash handlers and covered beneficiaries have also been recorded, clearly validating the entire money trail,” the statement said.
“The persons registered also turned out to be controllers and beneficial owners of various bank accounts and lockers, opened in the name of their relatives and trusted employees and ghost entities, which they handled in collusion with bank officials, through digital means,” He said. This is being investigated further, he added.
The CBDT said the beneficiaries were found to have made large investments in real estate in major cities and in fixed deposits to the tune of several hundred million rupees. PTI
