The Income Tax Department seized unaccounted cash exceeding Rs 12 crore from two groups engaged in the businesses of mining, media, providing cable TV services and running a coaching academy in Madhya Pradesh.
Documentary evidence showing suppression of cash receipts from students which is in excess of Rs 25 crore had been recovered from in the search operation of the coaching group, said a press release by the Ministry of Finance.
The IT Department initiated search and seizure operations on two major business groups of Indore on November 25, added the press release.
The first group is engaged in the business of mining, media and providing cable TV services and the second group is running a coaching academy. The search action has covered more than 70 premises in Madhya Pradesh and five other states, added the press release.
"Documentary evidence found and seized from the search operation of the coaching group clearly shows suppression of cash receipts from students which is in excess of Rs 25 crore. The analysis of seized evidence also indicates that this group is systematically suppressing its royalty receipts and profit share income from its various franchises," said the statement.
"Unaccounted cash exceeding Rs 10 crore has been received on such accounts. The search operations have resulted in the seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs. 2 crore," as per the statement.
Similar large-scale tax evasion has been found in the business of cable TV services. Evidence of other malpractices such as payment of on-money, suspected Benami transactions, unaccounted expenditure incurred in cash, undisclosed investment in immovable properties, etc. has also been found, according to the statement. Investigations have revealed that the group has also taken accommodation entries in the form of bogus unsecured loans exceeding Rs. 40 crore from various shell companies managed by entry operators. The main entry operator, the key handler, and several dummy directors of the shell companies have been identified, traced and covered during the search operation. The dummy directors and key handlers have admitted that the companies are merely paper entities, and they are working at the behest of the main entry operator.
During the course of search action, various incriminating documentary and digital evidence including parallel sets of financial records of some of the businesses have been found and seized. A preliminary analysis of this evidence show evasion of taxable income by adopting various malpractices, particularly the suppression of sales in the mining business.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor