The Income Tax department has uncovered a fake invoice racket which helped businesses evade taxes by manipulating their accounts with fake transactions, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement on Tuesday.
The department carried out search and seizure action on a large network of individuals across multiple states allegedly running a Rs 500-crore racket of entry operation and generation of huge cash through fake billing.
Income Tax Dept on Wednesday seized Rs 62 crores cash from entry operator Sanjay Jain and his beneficiaries during raids in Delhi-NCR.
The search operations have been conducted on 42 premises across Delhi- NCR, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa.
"The search has led to seizure of evidences exposing the entire network of the entry operators, intermediaries, cash handlers, the beneficiaries and the firms and companies involved. So far, documents evidencing accommodation entries of more than Rs 500 crore have already been found and seized," it said. The I-T Department said that several shell entities or firms were used by the searched entry operators for layering of unaccounted money and cash withdrawals against fake bills issued and unsecured loans given.
The personal staff or employees or associates had been made dummy directors or partners of these shell entities and all bank accounts were managed and controlled by these entry operators.
The I-T Department said that statements of such entry operators, their dummy partners or employees, the cash handlers as well as the covered beneficiaries have also been recorded clearly validating the entire money trail.
"The searched persons were also found to be controller and beneficial owners of several bank accounts and lockers, opened in names of their family members and trusted employees and shell entities, which they were managing in collusion with the bank officials, through the digital media. The same are being further investigated," it said. The beneficiaries have been found to have made huge investments in real estate properties in prime cities and in fixed deposits to the tune of several hundred crores of rupees, it said.
"During the search, cash of Rs 2.37 crore and jewellery worth Rs 2.89 crore has been found along with 17 bank lockers, which are yet to be operated," it added.
(With inputs from IANS)
