The Income Tax Department has conducted a search operation on premises of a few Chinese individuals and their Indian associates. An official statement said they were involved in money laundering and hawala transactions through series of shell entities.
A search action was conducted at various premises of these Chinese entities, their close confederates and couple of bank employees.
“Search action revealed that at the behest of Chinese individuals, more than 40 bank accounts were created in various dummy entities, entering into credits of more than Rs. 1000 crores over the period,” said Surabhi Ahluwalia, Commissioner of Income Tax (Media & Technical Policy) Official Spokesperson, CBDT.
According to the statement, a subsidiary of Chinese company and its related concerns have taken over Rs 100 crore bogus advances from shell entities for opening businesses of retail showrooms in India.
Further, incriminating documents in respect of hawala transactions and laundering of money with active involvement of bank employees and Chartered accountants have been found during the search, it said.
I-T Department said evidences of foreign hawala transactions involving Hong Kong and US dollars have also been unearthed. Further investigations are under progress.
First Published: Aug 11, 2020 11:06 PM IST
