The Income Tax Department has detected unaccounted income exceeding Rs 125 crore in a search and seizure operation on two prominent Asansol-based groups engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel products, cement, poly fabs and food processing, according to information provided by the finance ministry on Tuesday.
The search, carried out on December 16 covering more than 30 premises spread over West Bengal, has also resulted in the seizure of unaccounted cash and jewellery of more than Rs 2 crore.
A large number of incriminating documents and digital data stored in SD cards, and WhatsApp chats have been seized. The search team has detected that SD cards have been used to keep details of a parallel set of unaccounted sales, excel sheets of actual production data, parallel tally accounts files, cash payment details made to various parties.
A preliminary analysis of seized SD cards and related evidence reveals that these contain unaccounted cash handled by key employees of the directors and owners of the entities. The key persons of one of the groups have admitted that unaccounted income of more than Rs 66 crore has been generated through unaccounted cash sales from its manufacturing units during the financial year 2020-21.
In certain other entities, evidence has been found relating to claims of unsubstantiated purchases, out of which purchases to the extent of Rs. 20 crore have also been admitted by the directors as undisclosed income.
Further, analysis of seized evidence of another group reveals that many paper companies, which are run by entry operators, have been used to provide accommodation entries to its flagship concerns. These shell entities have been found to have routed back the unaccounted money of the group in the guise of share capital/unsecured loan into the books of account of these entities. It has been corroborated, with admission by directors of these entities concerned, that, quantum of such routing exceeds Rs. 40 crore.
Further investigations are still in progress.
Also read: Income Tax Dept. unearths Rs 100 crore in black money from leading steel manufacturer in Kolkata
