A raid was conducted by the Income Tax department in Maharashtra's Jalna, where officials disguised themselves as baraatis at a wedding.
An elaborate plan was put in place for the raid, which led to the seizure of Rs 56 crore in cash, 32 kg of gold, diamonds worth Rs 14 crore, and other property documents and data from two business groups.
In total, assets worth a whopping Rs 390 crore were seized, NDTV reported.
The IT department used 120 vehicles for the raid, all of which left separately for the venue to ensure that no suspicions were raised. Also, the vehicles were decorated like those seen in wedding processions.
Some of the vehicles also had boards on them which read "Dulhan hum le jayenge," which is the title of a Bollywood film and is often used in cars carrying the groom, while others had "Rahul weds Anjali" written on them.
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Around 250 IT officials were involved in the raids, which were conducted at the residence, warehouse and farmhouses of the two groups, whose businesses included dealing in real estate, steel, and clothing.
After the raids, it took officials around 11 hours to count the money seized, an officer was reported as saying by The Indian Express.
Apart from Jalna, the IT department also conducted raids at properties linked to the groups in Mumbai, Nashik, and Aurangabad from 3-9 August.
As per officials, the two businessmen had evaded taxes worth Rs 120 crore.
A press released by the department read, "The Income-Tax department carried out a search operation on 03.08.2022 on two major groups engaged in the manufacturing of steel TMT Bars. The search operation covered more than 30 premises spread over Jalna, Aurangabad, Nashik, and Mumbai. During the search operation, several incriminating evidences have been seized."
It also said that the businessmen were involved in fraud related to Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Upon examining the evidence of one of the businessmen, an officer said that the group was found to have indulged in hiding its unaccounted income through bogus unsecured loans and share premium from shell companies based in Kolkata.
"The search team has also detected a large number of lockers of both the groups, opened in the names of employees of the companies, which were maintained with a co-operative bank. During the raid, over 30 bank lockers, including several lockers in the co-operative bank, were searched. Huge unaccounted cash and gold jewellery have been seized from these lockers,” the officer further said.
(With inputs from NDTV and The Indian Express.)
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