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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Biggest seizure of Rs142 crore cash, gold post demonetisation in Chennai
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Biggest seizure of Rs142 crore cash, gold post demonetisation in Chennai

The seizure is the largest by the income tax department post-demonetisation and includes Rs10 crore in new currency

Pictures of the seizures made by the sleuths in Chennai show big paper cartons packed with old and new notes kept side-by-side shining gold bars in a room in a posh locality in the southern metropolis. Photo: PTIPremium
Pictures of the seizures made by the sleuths in Chennai show big paper cartons packed with old and new notes kept side-by-side shining gold bars in a room in a posh locality in the southern metropolis. Photo: PTI

Chennai/New Delhi: In the biggest seizure of cash and gold post demonetisation, the Income Tax department on Friday said it has seized unaccounted assets worth over Rs142 crore—that includes about Rs10 crore in new notes and gold bars weighing 127 kg—during searches at multiple locations in Chennai to check tax evasion.

This largest seizure of new currency notes in the country, after the old Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes were scrapped on 8 November, was seized by the sleuths of the investigation wing of the Income Tax department after raids were launched on Thursday on eight premises of a group engaged in sand mining in Tamil Nadu.

“The group has sand mining licence for the entire state of Tamil Nadu. Eight premises (six residential and two offices) were covered in the search. “During the search, Rs96.89 crore cash in old high denomination notes and Rs9.63 crore in new Rs2,000 currency notes along with gold weighing 127 kg worth approximately Rs36.29 crore were found and seized, as unaccounted assets," the Central Board of Direct Taxes, policy-making body for the I-T department, said in a statement issued in Delhi.

The total value of the assets is about Rs142.81 crore. Pictures of the seizures made by the sleuths in Chennai show big paper cartons packed with old and new notes kept side-by-side shining gold bars in a room in a posh locality in the southern metropolis. It added that the searches are “still in progress at four out of the total 8 premises and more specific details including modus operandi would emerge after examination of the documents and other evidence detected during the search."

Meanwhile, officials said S. Reddy, a contractor working with the state government, has claimed the entire money and the gold as his own and is being questioned along with few other people. A senior department official said this seizure of gold and cash was “an unprecedented amount that the tax department has seized in recent times."

The department, the officials said, carried out the searches based on intelligence inputs about the activities of Reddy and few others for the last few days. Officials said the agency was investigating how the new notes in such a large quantity were stashed by the individual. The bundles of the new Rs2,000, that were seized, had no banking slips on the them and were jumbled up to mislead investigators, they said.

The officials said a number of documents related to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of sale/purchase have also been seized by the tax sleuths. “He (Reddy) is a contractor working with the state government. He is claiming the entire cash and gold to be his own. Further probe is on," they said.

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Published: 09 Dec 2016, 12:37 PM IST
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