Notes ban: I-T dept detects Rs 3,651 crore undisclosed income
New Delhi: Income Tax department today said it has detected over Rs 3,651 crore of undisclosed income while more than Rs 98 crore in new notes has been seized as part of its country-wide operations against black money hoarders post demonetisation.
Official sources said the taxman has carried out a total of 785 search, survey and enquiry operations under the provisions of the Income Tax Act, across the country, since the note ban was declared on November 8, even as the department has issued 3,647 notices to various entities on charges of tax evasion and hawala-like dealings, till yesterday.
The department has seized cash and jewellery worth over Rs 522 crore, with cash being Rs 433 crore, during the same period and the new currency seized is valued at more than Rs 98 crore.
“The total undisclosed income admitted or detected as part of this action, till December 22, is more than Rs 3,651 crore,” they said.
The agency has also referred over 230 cases to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and 190 cases to the CBI in order to enable them probe other financial crimes like money laundering, disproportionate assets and corruption as part of their legal mandate.
Rs 34.50 lakh cash in new notes seized in Rajasthan
Jaipur: The Crime Branch of city police today seized Rs 34.50 lakh in cash, including Rs 30 lakh in Rs 2000 new notes, from two persons here.
Rajesh and Amit, residents of Jaipur, were detained after they failed to give any satisfactory answer about the money.
“We have seized the money from the duo as they could not give any substantial answer and forwarded the matter to Income Tax Department for further probe,” SP (Crime Branch) Vikas Pathak told PTI.
Pathak said the duo has claimed that its their money and were not going to exchange with the demonitised currency.
“We are verfying their facts and further investigation is on,” he added.
Demonetisation: ED questions Delhi lawyer in money laundering case
New Delhi: After arresting a Kolkata-based businessman, the Enforcement Directorate has begun questioning Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Tandon in its money laundering probe in two high-profile black money cases of illegal conversion of old notes in the wake of demonetisation.
Officials said the agency, for the second day today, recorded the statement of Tandon under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and confronted him with documents seized by the agency against him.
Tandon’s case pertains to an operation of the Delhi Police and the I-T department, early this month, where the agencies had seized Rs 13.6 crore from a law firm he is associated with.
Phone calls made and emails sent by PTI to Tandon’s law firm T and T Law elicited no response.
The lawyer, before this operation, was separately searched by the I-T department where it was said that he declared undisclosed income worth over Rs 125 crore.
ED sources indicated that Tandon will soon be questioned along with Kolkata-based businessman Paras Mal Lodha, whom the agency arrested in this case on Wednesday.
Lodha (62) was arrested by the agency in “connection with the recovery of large amount in new currency notes from a company belonging to Advocate Rohit Tandon of T and T law firm (in Delhi) and J Shekhar Reddy of Chennai”.
The agency has sent two phones, allegedly seized from Lodha, for forensic examination as it contained details of some conversations that the investigators could give them leads.
The Reddy case pertains to Chennai where the Income Tax department has made the biggest detection of unaccounted income of over Rs 142 crore.
These two cases, involving Tandon and Reddy, are being probed by at least four lead agencies of the country including the ED, I-T department, CBI and Delhi Police.
Officials said the multiple agencies working on these two cases, involving high-profile individuals, are joining dots of the investigations to prepare a water tight case against those who have either hoarded or generated black funds after the government scrapped high value notes on November 8.
600 Jan Dhan accounts under IT lens in Bihar, Jharkhand
Patna:Income Tax officials are probing 600 Jan Dhan accounts in Bihar and Jharkhand for their suspected naxal connection after they showed a total deposit of over Rs 10.8 crore following demonetisation.
A total of 600 Jan Dhan accounts which have money deposits on an average in between Rs 1 to Rs 3 lakh are being probed in Bihar and Jharkhand for naxal connection, Principal Director Income Tax (Investigation) Ashok Kumar Sinha told reporters.
He said the 600 accounts now have over Rs 10.8 crore deposits in the two states.
Though he did not provide break-up of the accounts, he said majority of them are in Jharkhand.
Principal Chief Commissioner Income Tax (Bihar & Jharkhand) S T Ahmad said one such Jan Dhan account in Ara witnessed a deposit of Rs 40 lakh after demonetisation which has been freezed.
Ahmad, accompanied by other senior officials were interacting with mediapersons on launch of Taxation and Investment Regime for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna, 2016 in the two states.
Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal) Prashant Bhusan said that if naxal connection is established during probe of these 600 Jan Dhan accounts, the accounts would be freezed.
Subrat Sarkar, Commissioner IT (Exemption), said that the department has served notices to 150 society and trusts in Bihar and Jharkhand including some political parties, educational, religious and social trusts enjoying tax exemption under IT Act to probe if cash has flown there after recall of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes.
“We have asked for details from them about cash deposits from November 8 till December 30 when the demonetisation drive would end,” Sarkar said.
Sarkar, however refused to disclose names of political parties or other organisations under the lens.
Giving details of action after demolition of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes, the IT officials said a total of 16 searches have been conducted in the two states so far. In addition, 41 surveys have been conducted and over Rs 9.17 crore seized.
Total Rs 42.4 crore undisclosed income has been unearthed so far in the two states, Sinha said, adding jewellery worth Rs 7 lakh is among total seizure.
Ahmad said that the Income Tax department has referred 14 cases of money laundering in the two states, each to Enforcement Directorate and CBI.
He said that against a target of collecting Rs 10,854 crore by way of tax in Bihar and Jharkhand in the current financial year, a sum of Rs 6,609 crore has already been collected which is 15 per cent above the collection in the corresponding period last fiscal.
New Delhi, Dec 23 (PTI) Income Tax department today said it has detected over Rs 3,651 crore of undisclosed income while more than Rs 98 crore in new notes has been seized as part of its country-wide operations against black money hoarders post demonetisation.
Official sources said the taxman has carried out a total of 785 search, survey and enquiry operations under the provisions of the Income Tax Act, across the country, since the note ban was declared on November 8, even as the department has issued 3,647 notices to various entities on charges of tax evasion and hawala-like dealings, till yesterday.
The department has seized cash and jewellery worth over Rs 522 crore, with cash being Rs 433 crore, during the same period and the new currency seized is valued at more than Rs 98 crore.
“The total undisclosed income admitted or detected as part of this action, till December 22, is more than Rs 3,651 crore,” they said.
The agency has also referred over 230 cases to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and 190 cases to the CBI in order to enable them probe other financial crimes like money laundering, disproportionate assets and corruption as part of their legal mandate.
ED conducts inquiries against co-op banks, jewellers in WB
Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate today conducted multiple enquiry operations at cooperative banks in three districts of West Bengal and detected alleged irregularities in deposits worth crores.
In the first instance in the Hooghly district, a four-member team of the agency visited the Chinsurah Central Cooperative Bank and asked bank authorities to send them the identities of some account holders.
Official sources said the agency suspects irregularities in various accounts and it also examined papers of the bank’s 19 branches in the said district.
Later, the officials asked the bank to send them the Know Your Customer (KYC) details of account holders, who had deposited at least Rs 49 crore.
The Chinsurah Central Cooperative Bank has no elected chairman for the past two years.
Similar operations were carried out by the agency in the Howrah and Nadia districts in order to check activities in suspected accounts including those which have been dormant for sometime now.
The sleuths also also visited at least half-a-dozen jewellers in the state capital yesterday and recovered some documents from these traders, especially of sales just before and after November 8 when the note scrap was announced by the government.
“Records of the jewellers show some back dated sales were made and even entries of sale and purchase was made in the name of fictitious customers. The investigations are going on,” they said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) along with the I-T department and other agencies has been carrying out operations against black money hoarders in the wake of the demonetisation of two high value currencies of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500.
CBI lodges case against officials of bank controlled by BJP MP
Mumbai: The CBI today registered a case against two officials of a bank controlled by BJP MP Pritam Munde and some others, following recovery of Rs 10 crore in demonetised notes in the city last week.
The agency also carried out searches at 11 places at Beed, Aurangabad, Pune and Mumbai. Nobody has been arrested though.
On December 15, police had recovered Rs 10.10 crore, including Rs 10 lakh in the new Rs 2,000 notes, from a car. It turned out that the cash was part of Rs 25 crore in demonetised notes that the officials of Vaidyanath Urban Cooperative Bank were transporting, a CBI official said.
Munde, daughter of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, is director of Vaidyanath Urban Cooperative Bank which has its head office in Beed district.
The case was also registered against a doctor and some others in connection with transportation of the cash.
It was registered under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and also under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The accused entered into a conspiracy and “fraudulently transported” around Rs 25 crore in demonetised currency from the bank’s head office in Beed to its Ghatkopar branch here on November 19 for changing it into legal tender, CBI said.
Around Rs 15 crore was allegedly deposited with Maharashtra State Urban Co-operative Bank and Rs 10.10 crore (Rs 10 lakh in Rs 2,000 denomination and Rs 10 crore in old Rs 500 notes) was being transported back to Beed in a car when it was intercepted by Mumbai police.
Three persons have been detained in the case by the police.
The probe revealed that the cash belonged to Vaidyanath Bank, and the detained persons were its employees, including a branch manager.
ED seizes Rs 10 lakh new notes; Rs 16 lakh forex in Punjab
Jalandhar: The Enforcement Directorate today seized Rs 10 lakh cash in new notes apart from Rs 16 lakh worth foreign currencies after it conducted searches on the premises of a forex dealer here in Punjab.
Officials said the agency conducted the operation under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) against a trading firm, identified as G H Purchase, as part of its operations against black money holders post demonetisation.
“A total of Rs 10 lakh cash in new notes has been seized along with Rs 16 lakh worth of foreign currency from various countries. The investigations in the case are ongoing,” they said.
The trader is located at the Old Phagwara Road area in the Cantt area here, they said adding some travel documents like Passport copies and visa have also been been seized during the operation.
Two men arrested for depositing Rs 34 crore in fake accounts
New Delhi: Two persons have been arrested by Crime Branch of Delhi Police for depositing black money worth Rs 34 crore in the fake accounts opened by them in the Naya Bazar branch of a private bank here.
The Crime Branch has arrested two men Rajkumar Goel (47) and Ranjit (29) last night from Naya Bazar area of Chandni Chowk, said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police(Crime).
Police received information that Goel is the mastermind of these illegal transactions, he said.
Both the accused were earlier involved in issuing fake bills against bank entries and were involved in theft of sale tax. After demonetisation was announced, they used the opportunity to transfer black money in the fake accounts and earn commission, said another officer.
“He had floated a number of fake companies wherein he used to convert illegitimate money into legitimate money through RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) transfers,” the officer said.
Goel and Ranjit were called for interrogation and initially tried to mislead the team by not divulging facts.
“Later, they confessed that Ranjit, in connivance with Rajkumar, had opened an account in the name of Raj Enterprises at Kotak Mahindra Bank and the money was received by them in this account through RTGS. The account is used only for such transactions,” said the officer.
Upender, who happens to be the cousin of Ranjit, is the proprietor of the account, he said.
“The accused Rajkumar had opened various accounts in the name of different firms like RK International, Swastik Trading, Sapna Trading, Mahalaxmi Industries, Shri Ganesh Enterprises, Delhi Trading Company, Virgo International etc.
at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Naya Bazar.
“They had deposited unaccounted cash worth Rs 34 crores in the accounts,” the officer said.
Two sets of pan cards, voter I-cards, Aadhaar cards, etc have been seized from them, he added.
With their arrest, police also worked out a cheating case in which a woman Suman Anand, a resident of Greater Kailash, was cheated of Rs 55 lakh in September.
“She had told police that sums of Rs 40,50,200 and Rs 15,20,300 were debited from her Corporation bank account on September 3 and 5 respectively using cheques.
“She said that both the original cheques are in her possession and forged cheques were used to transfer cash from her account,” said Yadav.
Meanwhile in a statement issued today, Kotak Mahindra Bank claimed that there are no fake accounts operating in their branches and it adheres to all the norms.
“The bank denies that there were any fake accounts. The Bank is extending full cooperation to the investigating authorities,” said Rohit Rao, spokesperson, Kotak Mahindra Bank.
He said that the Income Tax Department had visited one of the bank s branches in New Delhi, in connection with survey on two account holders.
“No KYC deficiencies were noted in these two account holders. The Bank opens new accounts for customers after strictly adhering to the KYC norms as prescribed by RBI,” he added.
The Income Tax department did question the branch manager and no adverse report has been submitted to the bank so far, he said.
Income Tax notices to Noida Authority bank officials
Noida:Tightening the noose around those who misused the Centre’s demonetisation move, the Income Tax department has sent notices to bank officials under Noida Authority.
The notices were sent recently seeking information about the account details of 25 officials of Noida Authority, Income Tax department officials said today.
The step was taken to detect black money, especially through fake companies. We are also looking into accounts of jewellers as there are reports that gold bricks were exchanged for old currency, they said.
In a surprise move, the Centre had on November 8 demonetised high-value Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Rs 8.80 lakh in Rs 2,000 notes seized, 4 arrested
Meerut:Four persons were arrested after Rs 8.80 lakh, in new currency notes of Rs 2,000 of the same series, was seized from them, police said today.
Rajnish Garg, Anil Rawat, Jitendar Kumar and Ved Prakash were arrested yesterday by a joint team of the state police and special task force from the city, they said.
The accused during their interrogation revealed that they supplied new notes on a 25-30 per cent commission, police said.
“As the recovered notes were of the same series, the police suspect that the accused had got the notes from a bank,” a senior police official said.
Investigation is underway to ascertain to whom have they distributed notes post-demonetisation and pinpoint the bank from where they got the large number of Rs 2,000 banknotes, he said.
The Income Tax department has been informed about the seizure and they are also probing the matter, the official added.
I-T detects Rs 47.74 cr unaccounted income of bullion traders,jewellers
Bengaluru: The Income Tax department today said it has detected undisclosed income of Rs 47.74 crore after surveys were conducted at half-a-dozen bullion traders and jewellers in the city following surge in their sales post demonetisation.
Officials said the operations were carried out after the investigation wing of the department here got inputs that these traders dealing in the yellow metal and precious stones recorded sales much higher than that in the same period last year.
“Apart from receipts in RTGS (funds transfer system through bank) in their (traders) accounts, there were huge cash deposits. On verification of cash sales, it was found that more of these transactions were done in October-November this year and all cash transactions were kept below the Rs 2 lakh threshold and without any details regarding the customer to whom the sale was made.
“We suspect this was apparently done to avoid Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and mandatory quoting of purchasers’ PAN. Huge cash deposits in bank accounts after demonetisation have been noticed in these cases. It is found that some of these jewellers have back-dated the bills and even paid VAT to to give the transactions a colour of genuineness,” they said.
Officials added in some cases, it was found that the sales had been “suppressed” previous years too.
“Further investigations are on to verify the genuineness of RTGS received in their account. Some of the jewellers are found to have not filed the returns of income also for the past several years. The surveys have resulted in detection of undisclosed income of Rs 47.74 crore,” they said.
In an another case in Anekal village of the city, the taxman seized a total cash of Rs 1.15 crore, with Rs 1.07 crore in new notes, from a transporter who was indulging in illegal conversion of old currency.
Bullion group in Agra surrenders Rs 12 crore to taxman
Agra: The Income Tax department today conducted searches on eleven premises of a city-based bullion trading group and detected unaccounted income worth Rs 12 crore.
Officials said the searches were carried out as part of the department’s operations against black money hoarders in the wake of the currency scrap announced by the government last month.
“The group has surrendered undisclosed income of Rs 12 crore to the department. Investigations in the case are ongoing,” they said.
In an another case in Allahabad, the taxman searched a locker belonging to a similar group and seized gold bullion worth Rs 1.06 crore and a cash of Rs 20 lakh,” they said, adding operations are still on.
Rs 100 cr deposited in 500 Jan Dhan a/c in western MP: I-T
Indore: Altogether Rs 100 crore were found to have been deposited in 500 Jan Dhan accounts in the banks in western Madhya Pradesh post-demonetisation, according to the Income Tax Department.
The Department had gathered information of inconsistencies in 500 Jan Dhan accounts with collective cash deposits of over Rs 100 crore, said Prashant Jha, Additional Director of Income Tax, Investigation Wing, here.
The Department is also probing 500 other (ordinary) bank accounts which received deposits of Rs one crore or more (each) post November 8.
“We got the information about deposits of over Rs one crore or more, made after November 8 demonetisation announcement, in 350 accounts in various banks in 16 districts of western region of Madhya Pradesh,” said V K Mathur, Chief Income Tax Commissioner (Indore region). Another 150 such accounts were found in the cooperative banks, he said.
CBI conducts searches regarding seizure of Rs 8 cr in lockers
Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has conducted searches at 40 places following seizure of around Rs 8 crore from bank lockers of a company in Pune.
The Income Tax Department seized 7.98 crore in new currency notes from 15 lockers at the state-run Bank of Maharashtra’s Parvati branch in Pune on December 14.
The lockers were held by Worldwide Oilfield Machine.
IT Department roped in CBI and Enforcement Directorate to probe the matter, following which CBI registered FIR against three persons on Monday for exchange of demonetised notes with legal tender. Nobody has been arrested yet.
One accused is suspected to have helped the other two to get old currency notes exchanged for the new ones.
Searches were conducted in Pune and elsewhere in Maharashtra yesterday and today, CBI said here.
The accused entered into criminal conspiracy with “unknown officers/officials of Banks and unknown private persons” and illegally obtained new currency notes to the tune of Rs 7,97,95,500, it said.
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