Bengaluru: Searches by Income tax officials in Bengaluru, and Erode and Chennai in Tamil Nadu from Wednesday till Friday night unearthed a whopping Rs. 152 crore unaccounted income, including a huge stash of new notes, bullion, jewellery, and documents pertaining to property ownership. The IT raids took place on the premises of two chief engineers of the PWD and contractors.
Earlier on Friday, Home Minister G. Parameshwara announced the suspension of the two chief engineers S.C. Jayachandra, Chief Project Officer of the State Highway Development Project, and T.N. Chikkarayappa, Managing Director of Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd.
Searches started on Wednesday and concluded on Friday night. A total of 18 locations in Bengaluru are under the I-T scanner. “The unaccounted income is expected to go up further. We will get a rough estimate on the extent of income and properties by Monday,” sources said. Meanwhile, the search of premises of the two officials, contractor Ramalingam, Sibi Chakravarthy of Kannan Borewells and banker Umashankar continued for the third day on Friday. The amount of unaccounted cash and gold has gone up.
Of the over Rs. 6 crore currency seized, the department said that nearly Rs. 5.7 crore was in new Rs. 2,000 currency. About Rs. 90 lakh is in the demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency. Sleuths have seized about seven kilos of bullion, suspected to have been purchased after demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency, nearly nine kilos of gold jewellery – together worth about Rs. 5 crore, an I-T department note said. Several high-end cars too have been seized.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Inspector General of Police M.A. Saleem said that ACB will seek details from Income Tax Department on the disproportionate assets found in the possession of the two engineers.
See more:
*Rs 30 lakh unaccounted cash seized in Bengaluru, three held
*IT seizure: State govt suspends 2 corrupt officials
*Rs.6 crore cash, 7kg gold haul in Bengaluru tax raids
*I-T raid on residence of Chief Minister’s close aide
