Bengaluru: C.S. Putturaju kin not raided, says Income Tax department
Bengaluru: A day after Shivu - the son of Minor Irrigation Minister and district-in-charge of Mandya C.S. Putturaju told the media persons that the Income Tax officers had on Thursday searched their house in Mysuru, the office of the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Karnataka & Goa has denied that they had covered any MP, MLA or office-bearer of any political party in the ongoing searches for alleged tax evasion.
“None of the people searched are politically exposed. No candidate in the ongoing elections or any MP, MLA or office-bearer of any political party has been covered in these searches,” said an official spokesperson.
No raid on temple priest
The Department has also strongly denied that they had conducted searches at the house of the family priest and temple of a prominent political leader. “Our attention has been drawn to reports in social media that IT officials have checked the house of family priest and temple of a prominent political leader. No such search/checking/verification of any sort has been done by the Income Tax Department in Karnataka. These reports are unfounded and unfortunate,” the officer added.
3 businessmen raided
On April 11 the Department had conducted search operations on three businessmen, who are engaged in the business of real estate, poultry and event management at 23 premises located in Bengaluru, Chitradurga and Kolkata and has seized unaccounted cash of around Rs 85 lakh and 13.5 kg jewellery. They have unearthed evidence of suppression of actual sales, cash expenses made out of books and receipt of money on sale of flats.
Income tax searches were also conducted on April 10 on some civil contractors and a liquor vendor in Belagavi, Chikkodi, Gokak and Nipani. “In one of the cases fixed deposits were created in the name of employees to park unaccounted money. There’s evidence of cash generation through bogus billing. The tax officers have seized Rs 62 lakh of unaccounted cash from these searches. Some more search operations were conducted in Hubbali, Gadag and Ballari on six contractors and an account official of the Public Works Department (PWD) and the tax sleuths have unearthed evidences of tax evasion in the form unaccounted cash payments and cash generation through bogus billing,” said the spokesperson.
In one case it was found that the tax assessee had transferred a transport contract to his family members without having any documentary evidence of the same mainly with the aim of inflating expenses in his books.
During the raids the assessees had reportedly admitted to an additional income of Rs 40.50 crore. The Income Tax officials have seized unaccounted cash of Rs 1.29 crore from the search operations on the PWD contractors and the accounts officer and 12.5 kg gold worth Rs 3.9 crore. The I-T officials also searched the premises of the owner of a transport company in Udupi and seized unaccounted cash of Rs 10 lakh from him.
“The cumulative cash (unaccounted) seized by the department from the searches on businessmen and contractors on April 10 and 11 in Bengaluru, Udupi, Ballari and Goa is around Rs 3.19 crore and 12.5 kg jewellery worth Rs 3.9 crore,” the spokesperson added.
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