The Income Tax Department has unearthed black money to the tune of Rs 400 crore in a search and seizure operation on a diversified business group engaged in the manufacturing of plywood, inverters and vehicle batteries in Haryana.
The search action carried out on Jan 11 has also resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of more than Rs 6.60 crore and jewellery valued to the tune of Rs 2.10 crore. As many as 22 bank lockers belonging to the owners of the group have also been seized and more cash and jewellery is expected to be found.
More than 30 premises of the group spread across the cities of Yamuna Nagar, Ambala and Karnal in the state, and Mohali in neighbouring Punjab were covered in the search operation carried out on Jan 11.
The preliminary analysis of incriminating evidence indicates that this group has not disclosed sales to the tune of Rs.400 crore in the last three years.
During the search operation, various incriminating documents and digital evidence have been found and seized in relation to entities of plywood business. These include a parallel set of books of account recording the entries of cash transactions of purchase, sale, payment of wages, and other expenses of group entities, in addition to transactions of investment in immovable properties.
The evidence clearly revealed the modus operandi of the group that it is involved in the generation of cash by suppression of sales to the extent of about 40% of the actual sales.
In case of a battery manufacturing concern, the search team unearthed incriminating evidence regarding payment of wages and purchase of raw materials in cash aggregating to Rs.110 crore which has not been recorded in the books of account. In the case of battery manufacturing as well as lead refining concerns and its related entities, suspicious purchases exceeding Rs.40 crore from non-existent concerns have also been identified.
The correlation of this evidence has also revealed that unaccounted cash so generated is systematically invested in the acquisition of immovable properties of key persons of plywood and lead refining businesses.
Further investigations are still in progress.
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