Over Rs 102 crore worth cash, jewellery seized in searches on contractors: I-T dept:

 

 

A total of Rs 94 crore cash and jewellery worth over Rs 8 crore were seized in the income tax searches, carried out between October 12 and 15 at 55 premises in Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi, in connection with alleged illegal wealth generated by civil contractors and real estate players, the Income Tax Department has disclosed.

A large amounts of cash — Rs 42 crore and Rs 52 crore seized from two premises in Bengaluru. Further, about 30 luxury wrist watches of foreign make were unearthed from the premises of a private salaried employee not engaged in the business of wrist watches.

As per the department, the modus operandi of tax evasion detected indicates that these contractors were involved in inflating expenses by booking bogus purchases, non-genuine claim of expenses with sub-contractors and claiming ineligible expenses. The irregularities detected in utilisation of contract receipts have resulted in generation of huge unaccounted cash and creation of undisclosed assets.