Income Tax raids on Bharat Samachar reveals Rs 200 crore of unaccounted transactions

New Delhi: Days after conducting raids on offices of Bharat Samachar, the Income Tax Department said that it has found unaccounted transactions to the tune of Rs 200 crore.

The department had conducted a search operation on July 22 in Lucknow, Basti, Varanasi, Jaunpur and Kolkata.

It said that it seized over Rs 3 crore in cash and placed 16 lockers under restraint.

“Cash of more than Rs. 3 crore has been seized and 16 lockers have been placed under restraint. Documents including incriminating digital evidence indicating nearly Rs. 200 crore of unaccounted transactions have been seized,” an official statement read.

The IT department said that the group devised a complex strategy of earning “huge unaccounted income through the creation of sophisticated financial layers of dubious and bogus entities spread across multiple States, to route this unaccounted money back into the main businesses without paying any taxes”.

“The total amount of such unaccounted layering through bogus entities exceeds Rs. 170 crore while the total unaccounted transactions exceed Rs. 200 crore,” the department said.

“Evidence found during searches establishes that the group has been earning huge outside-the-books income through mining, processing and sales in liquor, flour business, real estate etc,” it added.

The IT department said that the money was brought back into the books through a network of shell companies and other bogus entities without paying any taxes.

“During the searches, more than 15 companies incorporated at Kolkata and other places were found to be non-existent,” the agency said.