BHOPAL: The Income Tax Department raids at the premises of a real-estate group and an adventure sports-exotic resorts group in Bhopal and Goa continued for the second day on Saturday. The raids being conducted at 15 locations are expected to unearth undisclosed income worth over Rs 25 crore.
Of the 15 raided properties, two belonged to adventure sports and resorts group owner Vijay Shinde who, interestingly, was also named in the Panama Papers. The Papers had revealed that Shinde, the former expert of a Goa-based mining company, parked funds in offshore accounts in Singapore.
The I-T official said, the properties owned by Shinde in Bhopal, included Caravan Resorts-Adventure Resort, RPM Go-Karting and Sonik Adventures in sprawling multi-acres scenic complex at Ratibad on MP capital’s outskirts and Shinde’s house at Nishant Colony in Bhopal. Bank lockers owned by Shinde are likely to be opened soon by the IT department sleuths.
The other 12 properties in Bhopal and Goa which have been raided by the IT are related to Surabhi Homes group, owned by former MP Electricity Board (MBEB) executive engineer Pradeep Saraiya in partnership with business associate Santosh Ramtani.
All properties of the Surabhi Homes (a real estate group) are located in different areas of Bhopal, including MP Nagar and Awadhpuri.
A senior I-T department official in Bhopal said on Saturday that so far around Rs 75 lakh unaccounted cash was seized from different properties owned by the real estate group. Also several incriminating documents revealing undisclosed income have been seized.
He further said that more than 10 bank lockers owned by the group owners would be opened next in Bhopal.
According to media reports, I-T sleuths suspected that Saraiya had invested black money earned by him during his service in these businesses. Both the groups, the I-T authorities said, allegedly evaded income tax worth Rs 10 crore each. The houses of Ramtani and Saraiyya alone were worth crores. Besides documents, computers and laptops have also been seized.
The search by the IT department teams which started at 14 locations in Bhopal and Goa on Friday continued on the second day. It’s likely to be completed by Sunday morning.