I-T Dept detects unaccounted income of ₹175 crore during Tamil Nadu raids
Income tax officials have also seized ₹3 crore cash during raids on two groups of civil contractors in Tamil Nadu
Income Tax (I-T) sleuths on Wednesday detected unaccounted income of ₹175 crore and seized unaccounted cash of ₹3 crore during raids ontwo groups of civil contractors in Tamil Nadu, the department said on Thursday.
Searches were “mounted on the business groups” after the department received “intelligence inputs” that the cash was likely to be distributed for election purposes, an official statement from the I-T department read.
Polling in the state, notorious for money distribution among voters, is slated to begin on April 6.
In 2019, the Election Commission of India had cancelled polling at a parliamentary seat in Vellore after at least ₹11 crore was seized from a building linked to a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader, people familiar with the matter had then said.
On Wednesday, the I-T department carried searches and seizure operations on two groups across 18 premises, primarily in Madurai and Ramnad districts, the official statement read.
“Other findings include the identification of the fact that the assessee is booking bogus expenses under various heads to reduce the profits. The declared profits were less than 2% of the turnover when in actual accounts the profits exceeded 20%,” the statement said. It did not name the business and said that a probe is underway.