representative image.
CBDT officials said that on March 9, the Income Tax Department conducted searches at 23 locations at the premises of Unicorn Start-up Group located in Pune and Thane, which were engaged in wholesale and retail business of construction materials.
CBDT officials said the evidence showed that the group has made fraudulent purchases, spent huge amounts of unaccounted cash and obtained housing entries, aggregating to over Rs 400 crore.
The group has a pan-India presence with an annual turnover of over Rs 6,000 crore. A total of 23 premises were covered in the search operation in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
A large number of incriminating evidence in the form of hard copy documents and digital data has been found and seized during the search operation.
This evidence was confronted before the group’s directors, who accepted this practice under oath, disclosed excess income of over Rs 224 crore in various assessment years, and consequently offered to pay their due tax liability. Of.
The investigative action also revealed that the group had received huge foreign funding through the Mauritius route by issuing shares at extremely high premiums.
The complex hawala network of some shell companies based in Mumbai and Thane was also unearthed during the search operation. These shell companies exist on paper and were created for the purpose of providing housing entries only. Preliminary analysis revealed that the total quantum of housing entries provided by these shell entities is over Rs 1,500 crore.
Unaccounted cash worth Rs 1 crore and jewelery worth Rs 22 lakh have been seized so far.
read also , IT department raids former NSE MD Chitra Ramakrishna
read also , IT raids close aide of Aaditya Thackeray before Sanjay Raut’s operation to expose ED