Interrogation is necessary to obtain more details about their activities, officials said.
New Delhi:
The income tax department will soon summon promoters of three Rajasthan-based groups it raided earlier this week for tax evasion, officials said on Saturday.
They said the bloodhounds had recorded the statements of certain employees of these companies when the excavations were launched on July 13 in 43 premises in Mumbai, Delhi, Kota and Jaipur, in the midst of a seething political crisis within the party in power, Congress in power, in the Desert State.
Other invitations will be sent to the main promoters of the business groups that have been searched, officials said.
The interrogation is necessary to obtain more details about their activities and also to confront them with the documents seized and collected, they said.
Officials said around 12 crore rupees and jewelry worth 1.5 crore rupees were seized after the searches.
The Central Council of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the decision-making body of the tax department, said on Monday that “search and investigation operations were carried out on three groups in 20 premises in Jaipur, six in Kota, eight in Delhi and new in Mumbai “.
Although the department did not identify the groups, officials said the Om Metals Infraprojects Limited premises in Delhi and Rajasthan, the Amrapali jewelry from Jaipur promoted by Rajasthani chief congressman Rajiv Arora, another Congress leader Dharmendra Rathore and RK Sharma, promoter of a luxury hotel in Jaipur, were covered.
The excavations took place in the midst of a fierce struggle between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy and former CCP chief, Sachin Pilot. The action was criticized by the Congress even as the department said the raids were carried out on the basis of “reliable data” of tax evasion by groups under the scanner.
“One of the groups covered is involved in several commercial activities such as the hotel industry, hydroelectric projects, the metallurgy and automotive sectors. He is suspected of having invested unrecognized income generated by these activities in the ‘real estate’, said the CBDT.
The second group, he said, is engaged in the trade of silver and gold jewelry and antique silver items and has associated enterprises in various countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, and also owns properties and bank accounts in these countries.
“The main allegation against the group is that a substantial part of its silver jewelry business is carried out outside the usual accounting books,” said the CBDT.
The third group, he added, is involved in the hotel industry. “The source of investment in the same sector remains to be verified,” said the statement.
The CBDT had stated that several incriminating evidence in the form of loose papers, diaries, digital data were found which indicate the trade in bullion in cash, the investment of cash in property, among others.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
