Yesterday the Income Tax department started conducting raids at 50 locations connected to Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath. I-T officers had conducted searches at the locations of CM’s OSD, and several other locations in Bhopal, Indore, Goa and Delhi. More than 300 officials of the Income Tax department took part in this massive operation.
The raids had revealed that Deepak Puri, the chairman of Moser Baer group and brother-in-law of Kamal Nath, was involved in converting Rs 242 into dollars by raising fake bills. A diary was recovered during the raids, which had revealed the trail of the money.
Now, more details have emerged about the raids. According to CBDT sources, the Income Tax officials have detected a racket of collection of unaccounted cash through various persons, including businessmen, politicians and bureaucrats. The amount of such unaccounted case detected so far is Rs 281 crore. Unaccounted cash of ₹ 14.6 crore also has been found so far in the raids, along with liquor bottles, arms and hide skins of tiger.
Meticulous records of collection & disbursement of cash in form of hand written diaries, computer files & excel sheets found & seized corroborate the above findings.
Unaccounted cash of ₹ 14.6 cr has been found so far.
— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) April 8, 2019
The Income Tax department tweeted that meticulous records of collection & disbursement of cash in form of hand written diaries, computer files & excel sheets were found and seized during the raids, which corroborate the findings of unaccounted money transactions.
Searches in Madhya Pradesh have detected wide spread & well-organized racket of collection of unaccounted cash of about ₹ 281 cr through various persons in different walks of life including business, politics & public service.
— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) April 8, 2019
A press release issued by the CBDT said that a part of this amount was transferred to the head office of a major political party located at Tughlaq Road in Delhi, which included Rs 20 crore transferred through hawala route. This amount was moved through a senior functionary of the party.
Although the department didn’t name the political party and the functionary, it was reported that the residence of SM Moin in Delhi, who is a senior functionary of Congress, was raided by the Income Tax department. A Republic report said that Moin is under the scanner for receiving Rs 20 crore from Bhopal, and the raid was done pertaining that transfer.
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel rushed to the residence of Moin in Delhi when I-T officers were conducting search operations there. According to the website of the Congress party, SM Moin is the Administrative Officer of AICC. Therefore, it can be presumed that the major political party mentioned in the CBDT release is the Congress party.
The searches in Moin’s residence yielded more evidence of unaccounted money. A cash book with records of Rs 230 crore, siphoning of more than Rs 242 crores using bogus bills and evidence of more than 80 companies in tax heavens were found in the raids. Income Tax officials also found several unaccounted and benami properties at posh locations in Delhi.
