I-T department detects Rs 1,000-crore black income after raids on Gujarat group

The Income-tax Department unearthed “unaccounted” income of over 1,000 crore during a search operation last month on a Gujarat-based business conglomerate, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Tuesday.

The searches were launched on July 20 and the agency covered 58 premises in Kheda, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

“Unaccounted cash of 24 crore and unexplained jewellery, bullion etc valued at 20 crore have been seized so far,” CBDT said in a statement.


The “prominent” business conglomerate has diversified interests ranging from textiles, chemicals, packaging, real estate and education, the tax body said without identifying the group.

Documents and digital data seized during the raids showed that the group had been engaged in “large-scale” tax evasion by adopting various methods, including by way of “unaccounted” cash sales outside the books of account, booking of bogus purchases and cash receipts from real estate transactions, CBDT said.

“The group has also been found involved in layering of unaccounted sums through share premium from Kolkata-based shell companies,” it added.

“Certain instances of unaccounted income generated through cash-based ‘sarafi’ (unsecured) advances made have also been found,” according to the statement.

The group was “involved in profiteering through manipulation of share prices of its listed companies through operators,” CBDT said.

Seized data indicates that the group had been siphoning off funds through fictitious entities for the personal use of promoters, it said, adding there was "manipulation" of the books of account of the public limited companies of the conglomerate.