The Income Tax Department detected undisclosed income over ₹450 crore after raiding 22 locations of a Madhya Pradesh-based soya products manufacturing group. The I-T department also seized ₹8 crore "unexplained cash" and "unexplained foreign currency of various countries amounting to more than ₹44 lakh," the finance ministry said in a statement on Monday.
"The group has introduced unaccounted income to the tune of Rs. 259 crore by way of introduction of Share capital at huge premium from Kolkata based shell companies," the statement mentioned.
"The group has also introduced undisclosed income of ₹90 crore in its books of accounts by way of sale of paper investments in shell companies to another set of shell companies of Kolkata," the finance ministry said. "None of the companies was found to be operational at their shown address and the group could not confirm the identity of such paper companies or any of its directors," it added.
The agency conducted searches at various locations of a soya products manufacturing group at Betul and Satna in Madhaya Pradesh, Mumbai and Solapur in Maharashtra and Kolkata. The searches led to the seizure nine bank lockers, it added.
"During the search, it was seen that bogus loss to the tune of ₹52 crore has been claimed by the group to suppress their profits, by indulging in intra-group out-of-exchange contract settlement," the statement said.
"Various companies were formed in the name of employees to carry out these transactions, while there was no actual business carried out between them. Directors of these companies were not aware about any such transactions," the ministry said in a statement.
The group has also claimed incorrect Long Term Capital Gains exemption of over ₹27 crore on sale of shares of a group entity. Investigations revealed that the purchase of these shares was not genuine as group directors purchased shares of this entity at nominal value from non-existent Kolkata based shell companies, it said.
Various types of evidence including chats among key persons of the group reflects unexplained cash payment and hawala transactions of over ₹15 crore.
Incriminating evidence in the form of digital media such as Laptops, hard drives, pen drives etc have been found and seized, it added.
