Mumbai: The raids conducted by the Income Tax Department at Jalna in Maharashtra have shocked the entire country. In this raid, assets worth Rs 390 crore including Rs 58 crore cash and Rs 14 crore jewelery have been seized. The IT raided the factories, houses, farm houses and offices of two major steel traders, a real estate developer and a textile trader in Jalna. According to the Income Tax Department, the search operation was conducted at the premises of two major groups involved in the preparation of steel TMT bars from August 3.
Search Operation
Meanwhile, more than 30 premises of traders in Jalna, Aurangabad, Nashik and Mumbai were checked. At the same time, the raided companies include SRJ Steel and Kalika Steel. A search operation was also conducted at the locations of Co-operative Bank, Financier Vimal Raj Bora and Dealer Pradip Bora related to these companies. Among these, SRJ Peety Steels Private Limited has been in the business of metal and chemical products for the past 37 years, while Kalika Steel manufactures TMT bars is a famous company in Maharashtra was started in 2003.
In this filmy style raid, the Income Tax Department has received information that business groups are evading taxes on a large scale. The team also discovered lockers opened in the name of employees of SRJ Steel and Kalika Steel companies. A large amount of unaccounted cash and gold ornaments were seized from these lockers in the co-operative bank. Not only that, but a large unaccounted amount of cash has been recovered from a secret room at a group’s farmhouse. Unaccounted cash worth Rs 58 crore and jewelery worth Rs 14 crore have been seized so far in the search operation.
Marathon Hours of Counting
Most seriously, it was said that the Income Tax Department took 13 hours to count the cash found in the raid. This cash was taken to the State Bank in Jalna and counted. Cash counting starts at 11 am on Thursday and continues till 1 pm. This action has taken place between 1st and 8th August. The raid was conducted by the Nashik branch of the Income Tax Department. 260 officers and employees from across the state participated in this operation. More than 120 vehicles were used. All these officers were divided into 5 teams.
Secret Room In a Farmhouse
The action was taken after the Income Tax Department received information about irregularities in four steel companies in Jalna. Houses and factories were raided. Nothing was found in the house, but cash was recovered from a secret room in a farmhouse outside the town. The Income Tax Department seized the houses, offices, land at various places, farms, bungalows, bank deposits, documents related to other transactions. The team claims to have found unaccounted assets worth around 390 crores.
According to the information received, while conducting the raids, the teams took utmost care to ensure that the businessmen and people associated with them did not get information and that the news of the raid preparations did not spread. For this, officers from Nashik, Pune, Thane, Mumbai were going around with stickers of the names of bride and groom on their vehicles. They were walking around for action, pretending to be going to a wedding. This left no one in doubt. The raid code word ‘Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge’ was written on a sticker on each vehicle.
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