The Income Tax Department on Monday conducted raids against some individuals for allegedly running a Rs 500 crore racket of entry operation and generation of huge cash through fake billing, the CBDT said on Tuesday. The search action was conducted on 42 premises across Delhi- NCR, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa.
During the search, I-T officials seized cash and jewellery worth of over Rs 5 crore, 17 bank lockers and uncovered investments in property and fixed deposits of several hundred crores, as per the statement issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday.
"The search has led to seizure of evidences exposing the entire network of the entry operators, intermediaries, cash handlers, the beneficiaries and the firms and companies involved. So far, documents evidencing accommodation entries of more than Rs 500 crore have already been found and seized," the CBDT said.
As per the statement, several shell firms were used by the searched entry operators for layering of unaccounted money and cash withdrawals against fake bills issued and unsecured loans given. The personal staff members were made dummy directors/partners of these shell entities and all bank accounts were managed and controlled by these entry operators.
"Statements of such entry operators, their dummy partners/employees, the cash handlers as well as the covered beneficiaries have also been recorded clearly validating the entire money trail," it added.
"Documents evidencing accommodation entries of more than Rs 500 cr were seized. During the search, cash of Rs. 2.37 crore and jewellery worth Rs 2.89 crore has been found along with 17 bank lockers, which are yet to be operated," the CBDT said.
It said that further probe is underway.
The searched persons were also found to be controller and beneficial owners of several bank accounts and lockers, opened in names of their family members and trusted employees and shell entities, which they were managing in collusion with the bank officials, through the digital media. The same are being further investigated.
The beneficiaries have been found to have made huge investments in real estate properties in prime cities and in fixed deposits to the tune of several hundred crores of rupees.
With agencies inputs