I-T raids T-Series, questions CMD

NEW DELHI: Late on Saturday evening, chairman and MD of Super Cassettes Industries (T-Series) Bhushan Kumar was questioned at his office in Delhi-NCR by senior income tax officials on alleged evasion of huge tax and siphoning off hundreds of crores to foreign countries to purchase properties in his employees’ names.

During the I-T searches, which began on Thursday at 30 premises of the Super Cassettes group and its owners in Delhi, Mumbai, Faridabad and Noida, officials sealed 25 bank lockers and recovered details of several foreign bank accounts and assets allegedly acquired by its chairman and MD in the name of his employees, a top source said.

While investigation is still in progress, sources claimed they have traced significant investments for acquisition of properties in the US and Burj Khalifa, Dubai, among other places. Documents of several benami properties in India have also been recovered along with evidence of inflated expenditure booked through bogus billings.

I-T investigating units in Delhi and Mumbai have seized bundles of documents and other electronic devices revealing details of hundreds of crores of tax evaded unaccounted income (black money) shipped out of the country through benami entities in several tax havens, a source said.

Bhushan Kumar’s interrogation started on Saturday soon after some of his employees were questioned about their involvement in benami transactions since huge properties were found invested in their name, both in India and abroad. “Employees have recorded statement with the I-T officials stating they had nothing to do with these properties and those were investments made by Kumar,” the source said.

The inventory of properties is still being prepared as the questioning progresses. More details on the extent of tax evasion would emerge after all the seized documents are examined, said a senior officer.