Bengaluru: The Panaji Directorate of the Director General Income Tax (Investigation), Karnataka and Goa carried out search operations on the casino operators and bullion traders in Hubballi and Chitradurga districts on Friday.
The income tax teams were present at around 15 premises spread across the states of Karnataka and Goa. One of the hawala operators is also actively involved in converting old currency notes and was accumulating bullion using gold currency.
During the search operations, from a secret chamber in the bathroom of the residence of a hawala operator, 28 kg of bullion, about 4 kg of gold and jewellery, Rs 5.7 Crore of new currency in Rs 2000 notes, and Rs 90 Lakh in Rs 100 and Rs 20 notes were seized. Various incriminating documents have also been recovered and income tax teams are further analysing and investigating the same.
Notably, the major haul of new denomination currency is from a relatively small town Challakere in Chitradurga district. This small town with a population of 50,000 is 40 km away from the district headquarters.
Till the last update, searches were still continuing in the premises.
