Income Tax lens on top buyers of Nirav Modi jewellery

New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has given income tax sleuths the go-ahead for a countrywide probe on suspected cash purchase of diamonds and other jewellery from Nirav Modi stores in the two financial years starting 2015.

The investigation will be based on a list detailed in a confidential document of about 90 pages prepared by Income Tax (Investigation), Mumbai, which had carried out searches against the diamond merchant last year.

The details include total amount of gems and jewellery purchased by an individual and the mode of payment. The 2015-16 list runs into 40 pages while that for 2016-17 is of about 50 pages.


This data has now been sorted based on local addresses and circulated to relevant tax investigation wings in different states and union territories, CBDT sources told ET.

The Delhi office of Income Tax(Investigation) last Tuesday received a list of 55 entities from Mumbai, a senior I-T department officer told ET on the condition of anonymity.

The list has been divided into three categories. In the first category are those who bought jewellery worth Rs 5 crore and above. Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi’s wife Anita figured in this category and was issued a notice about two months ago.

She has since challenged the entry.

The next slab is for purchases of between Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore and the last category is for those with purchases below Rs 1 crore.

Though the I-T officials did not disclose names, it’s learnt there are prominent businesspersons, including one from South Delhi, who allegedly had made large purchases in cash. They are expected to come under more scrutiny, added officials.

Income tax sleuths plan to further dig into I-T returns of those two years filed by these top buyers of Nirav Modi brand jewellery.

In case of mismatch between their declared income and the purchases made, they will be asked to produce evidence to account for their high-value purchases, added sources in the I-T department. There are, however, doubts for which theI-T department will have to come up with credible answers.

For instance, Singhvi’s wife countered the I-T notice by demanding to know about the evidence through which the department had determinedwhether the entry made was genuine or fake. The department had asked Sighvi’s wife to give justification for cash purchase of jewellery worth Rs 5 crore from Nirav Modi stores. The remainder of thetotal bill of Rs 6.8 crore was cleared through cheque payment.

Nirav Modi has left the country amid charges that he defaulted on loans from public sector banks worth about Rs 14,000 crore.