ED may begin probe against meat exporter Moin Qureshi

NEW DELHI: Spelling fresh trouble for controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi, the Income Tax department has recently shared its appraisal report on alleged tax evasion by the businessman with the ED for 'Hawala' and forex violations probe against him and his firms.

Official sources said the I-T department has handed over the report of its five-month long investigations against Qureshi and his businesses which the ED is now "studying."

"The ED may soon begin a probe to check possible violations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) by Qureshi and his firms. I-T probe indicates alleged Hawala transactions made to overseas locations.The report is being analysed and studies," the sources said.

Sources, quoting the report, said instances have been detected by tax sleuths of illegal funds being routed to Hong Kong and some European locations by using the illegal 'Hawala' channels which entails skipping the legal banking route to move huge amounts of money with an aim to avoid enforcement agencies.

The ED is the designated nodal central agency to probe these crimes under FEMA laws and hence the tax department and shared relevant portions of its report with the agency.

The taxman, in the said appraisal report, had pegged an alleged evasion of Rs 200 crore by Qureshi and his business firms and the report is now with the assessment wing of the I-T department which is expected to soon issue demand notices to him.

The appraisal report was also placed before the Supreme Court by the tax department in October this year.

The case came to light after the I-T department conducted searches on Qureshi and his firms in February this year and it detected alleged "under reporting" of profits by these business units which are primarily involved in meat processing, selling and exporting businesses.

The appraisal report submitted by the I-T department to the apex court in October on Qureshi said there are "astonishing" state of affairs between him and a previous CBI Director.

It had said that the ex-CBI chief allegedly used to have conversations with the businessman on a daily basis in code on issues including helping accused in some cases.

The Attorney General had then said that the taxman had raided Qureshi after his conversations with others were tapped, and on the basis of the raids the appraisal report was prepared which is not a statutory document but an analysis.

The report, running in four volumes, was prepared on the basis of documents and material seized by the department as it was placed in a sealed envelope before a bench comprising justices Madan B Lokur, Kurien Joseph and A K Sikri.