NEW DELHI: The national capital is turning out to be a den of money laundering with the income tax department carrying out a fresh round of searches on bullion traders on Friday and unearthing unaccounted sales of gold worth Rs 250 crore, according to preliminary reports.
Earlier, in three separate cases since demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8 , the I-T department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had found sales of at least Rs 400 crore worth of unaccounted bullion in the national capital.
On Friday, the I-T department interrogated four bullion dealers in Karol Bagh and Chandni Chowk and it emerged that they had allegedly exchanged banned tender amounting to over Rs 250 crore with gold bars in the past few weeks.
The search was continuing on 12 shops and eight residential premises of these bullion traders on Friday night. “Preliminary findings reveal these four bullion traders had facilitated conversion of banned currencies of around Rs 250 crore into bullion through multiple bank accounts,” a senior I-T official said. All four bullion dealers had their shops in Kucha Mahajani area of old Delhi and a few in Karol Bagh.
I-T officials are also investigating bank accounts of the four and some shell companies through which such currencies were deposited and routed to beneficiaries. “These are new cases which have come to light and the modus operandi is similar to the previous cases that the I-T department had unearthed soon after demonetisation,” the official said.
In its first raids on Kucha Mahajani bullion dealers a few days after demonetisation, the I-T department had unearthed a major money laundering racket where one dealer alone had sold gold bars worth Rs 100 crore. In exchange, the bullion traders received money in banned currency notes and deposited them in three bank accounts, all in the names of shell companies with fictitious addresses. The ED has already registered a money laundering case in the matter and arrested two intermediaries and two bank managers.
The I-T department is cracking down on bullion traders in other parts of the country too. In Bengaluru, the department detected undisclosed income of Rs 47.74 crore after surveys were conducted at half-a-dozen bullion traders and jewellers on Friday following a surge in their sales post-demonetisation.
In Agra, searches were conducted on a bullion group covering 11 premises at different locations and Rs 12 crore in undisclosed income was seized. Further investigation is in progress in the case. Besides, in a search on lockers of another group in Allahabad, bullion worth Rs 1.06 crore and Rs 20 lakh in cash were seized.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the I-T investigation unit searched the accounts of Kotak Mahindra Bank at its K G Marg branch in central Delhi and seized Rs 39 crore. A source said the illegal tender was deposited in the bank branch in question and demand drafts (DDs) totalling Rs 39 crore were issued in the name of agents.
An I-T search was conducted on the premises of an agent after DDs issued in his name were cancelled by the bank. However, the officials could not interrogate the agent since he was picked up by Delhi Police’s crime branch and sent to judicial custody before I-T officials could reach him.
Bureau Report
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