BENGALURU: The owner of a popular chain of restaurants in Bengaluru has come under the scanner of almost all central revenue intelligence agencies for alleged involvement in high-volume gold and foreign exchange (forex) smuggling, money laundering and possessing huge undisclosed immovable assets.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Bengaluru Zonal Unit, has unearthed a major forex smuggling racket worth around Rs 50 crore in which Tamtam Chandrasekhar of ‘Plantain Leaf’, a chain of Andhra cuisine restaurants in the city, and some others are allegedly involved.
According to sources, the DRI had “intercepted and detained Chandrashekhar and his associate Vattalore John Wilson in September 2017 at the Kempegowda International Airport under COFEPOSA and seized 20.12 kg of gold worth Rs 6.24 crore from their possession. While investigating, they unearthed that Chandrashekhar had smuggled Rs 50 crore worth of forex to Dubai between January and September 2017,” said the officer.
The DRI is in the process of filing a prosecution complaint before the Special Economic Offences Court against Chandrashekhar and his other associates.
“The DRI, with the help of their counterpart agencies in Dubai, came to know that Chandrashekhar had smuggled foreign currency worth over Rs 50 crore out of India and had also huge quantity of gold into India with the active connivance of Customs officer D Ashok who was posted at KIA,” he added.
Ashok was compulsorily retired in June this year by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs on corruption charges.
“Investigation so far has revealed that Chandrashekhar was a frequent traveller to Dubai. He had declared foreign currency of over Rs 50 crore on arrival there before remitting it in his bank account,” said an official source. He explained that under the Dubai laws, a foreigner has to declare foreign currency at the port of entry before being allowed to remit it in a bank.
“Chandrashekhar has laundered money, which is an offence under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in India and is investigated by the Enforcement Directorate. The DRI has learnt that he has allegedly used this money to buy gold, which he has smuggled into India over a period of time,” said the officer .
“The DRI has shared the information with the ED and Income Tax Department. Based on the tip-off, the I-T Department has conducted search and seizure operations on properties linked to Chandrashekhar and reportedly found Rs 250 crore worth of undisclosed properties,” said the officer.