I-T Dept conducts searches in Raipur, seizes Rs 6 cr

New Delhi : The Income Tax department recently carried out a search and seizure operation on a Raipur-based hawala operator.

The department's action was based on a specific intelligence that a set of people were to carry out an outside-the-books cash transaction of a substantial amount in the city.

Upon further investigation, the input was found to be credible and the hawala dealer was identified. Four premises at Raipur were covered in the action that was carried out on June 21.

The modus operandi involved not only giving accommodation entries of sale, purchase etc. to people, but also transportation and end-use facilitation of unaccounted money.

During the course of the search, unaccounted cash amounting to approximately Rs 6 crore has been seized. A number of digital devices in the form of a computer hard discs and pen drives having details of hawala transactions have also been seized.

The same are being analysed and quantification of the total amount involved is under progress.

Preliminary estimates suggest that hawala transactions exceeding Rs 100 crore may be involved. Further investigations are in progress