The Income Tax Department has recovered ₹351 crore and unaccounted jewellery amounting to more than ₹2.80 crore in searches conducted in more than 30 premises across 10 districts in Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The search operation involved the business controlled by a family based in Ranchi.
The IT Department conducted a search operation on December 6 on a group involved in the business of manufacturing and selling country liquor and grain-based alcohol, bottling of foreign liquor, and running hospitals and educational institutions. The agency found nearly ₹329 crore in small towns in Odisha, as per the Finance Ministry.
The agency found and seized a large amount of incriminating evidence in the form of documents and digital data during the search operation. The cash found and seized revealed the unaccounted income of the group through a number of businesses, as admitted by the key employees handling the business activities. This has also been verified by one of the family members actively involved in the business.
One of the individuals in the group holds a political position and resides in Ranchi, the agency informed. Evidence revealed records of unaccounted sales of country liquor, systematic details of undisclosed cash receipts and references for the movement of unaccounted cash, as revealed in the preliminary analysis.
A significant amount of cash, amounting to ₹329 crore, was found and seized from obscure and dilapidated buildings, hidden chambers and hidden safe houses in small towns in Odisha, including Sudapada and Titlagarh in Bolangir district and Khetrajrajpur in Sambhalpur district, as per the Finance Ministry.
