BHOPAL: Three-day searches at seven premises associated with a real estate broking-insurance agents group in Bhopal have led the income tax department to undisclosed income of around Rs 9.5 crores – the biggest disclosure of black money during the 2016 currency demonetisation period in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The search at seven premises associated with the group operated by Dilip Gupta and Rajendra Pawar, which started on Friday and ended on Monday early morning led the IT sleuths to Rs 9.5 crores undisclosed income deposited in multiple bank accounts during the post-currency demonetisation period in November-December 2016.
According to a senior IT department official at MP and Chhattisgarh headquarters in Bhopal, the surrender of the Rs 9.5 crore undisclosed income by real estate brokers is the biggest disclosure of unaccounted money in MP and Chhattisgarh, which was deposited in bank accounts over a period of two months post-Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency demonetisation by Narendra Modi government in November 2016.
“Entire money deposited in bank accounts mostly held by paper concerns/firms (those operating on paper only) in the two months after currency demonetisation in the name of those close to Rajendra Pawar has been surrendered as undisclosed income,” said the high-ranked income tax official.
Prior to this the biggest disclosure of Rs 6 crore pertaining to the post-demonetisation period in MP and Chhattisgarh was made by search at Bhopal-based franchise of a Kolkata-headquartered premier jewellery chain.
Investigations by the taxman till now suggests that the Rs 9.5 crores undisclosed income surrendered by the real estate broking group could possibly pertain to repayment of private loans disbursed by Pawar and Gupta to private parties. However, it’s still not clear, why the possible repayment of the private loan was done during post-currency demonetisation period only.
Also, under the taxman’s scanner are over 50 files of property registries of clients, which have been seized by the tax sleuths.
The IT department official added that seven properties associated with the premier Oriental group of educational institutions in Bhopal, Jabalpur and Indore, which were searched simultaneously over the last three days are yet to throw a major disclosure of undisclosed income. “It will take around a week’s time, as all documentary details pertaining to businesses in Jabalpur and Indore are yet to reach Bhopal.”
The official, however, said series of irregularities have been detected during the searches, including sudden depositing of several lakhs of rupees in bank accounts of employees of the education major, some big donations to the group, a significant volume of bogus expenditure and several payment transactions that exceeded the one-time limit of Rs 20,000.
Also under taxman’s scanner is circulation of over Rs 10 crore within a close group of related individuals over the last six years, particularly as the educational institutions and trust managing them comprises a close-knit group of relatives. “Possibility of violations of norms pertaining to not only the IT Act, but also to laws related to education and trust by the education group cannot be ruled out,” said the official.