Rs 94 cr cash, jewellery seized after IT searches in Karnataka

The Income Tax department has seized Rs 94 crore in cash as well as gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 8 crore and 30 luxury watches following raids on government contractors and real estate developers in Karnataka and some other states the CBDT said on MondayThe searches were launched on October 12 and 55 premises were covered by the department in Bengaluru and some cities in neighbouring Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as well as in DelhiThe search has resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of approximately Rs 94 crore and gold and diamond jewellery of over Rs 8 crore aggregating to more than Rs 102 crore the Central Board of Direct Taxes said in a statementFurther a cache of about 30 luxury wristwatches of foreign make were unearthed from the premises of a private salaried employee not engaged in the business of wristwatches it said without identifying the accused entitiesA war of words on the matter has broken out between Karnatakas ruling Congress and the opposition BJP following the recovery of the unaccounted cash BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel said the money was linked to the Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has denied the allegation as baselessThe CBDT frames policies for the Income Tax departmentIt alleged that a large amount of incriminating evidence in the form of loose sheets hard copy of documents and digital data was also seized after the raids on the entities and their associatesThe modusoperandi of tax evasion detected indicates that these contractors were involved in reducing their income by inflation of expenses by booking bogus purchases nongenuine claim of expenses with subcontractors and claiming ineligible expenses it saidThe irregularities detected in utilisation of contract receipts has resulted in generation of huge unaccounted cash and creation of undisclosed assets according to the CBDTEvidence indicating inflation of expenses in the form of discrepancies in goods receipt note GRN validation have been unearthed during the search and evidence of huge discrepancies in documentation related to purchases booked and actual physical transport of goods have also been unearthed with regard to bogus transactions with subcontractors some of whom were also covered during the search the statement saidThese contractors it claimed were also involved in booking expenses for nonbusiness purposesIt said evidence related to liaison expenses was seized and largescale unaccounted cash transactions not found recorded in the account books have also been found during the search from the premises of the assessees subcontractors and associates including certain cash handlersThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever