I-T dept claims searches conducted last week point to unaccounted financial transactions

The operation was conducted in more than 32 premises spread across Jalna, Aurangabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata.

The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on Thursday on a group of four major Steel Rolling Mills based in Jalna, Maharashtra. These companies are engaged in the business of manufacturing steel TMT bars and billets mostly using steel scrap as raw material.

As many as 12 bank lockers were unearthed during the search operation. (Image for representation.)

The operation was conducted in more than 32 premises spread across Jalna, Aurangabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata.

I-T officials said during the course of the search and seizure operation, many incriminating documents, loose sheets and other digital evidence were found and seized. The evidence clearly indicates the involvement of the companies in large scale unaccounted financial transactions made outside the regular books of accounts, including inflation of purchases using entry providers, unaccounted cash expenses and investments, etc.

“The evidence found also indicate the laundering of a substantial amount of unaccounted income earned by the companies in the guise of share premium and unsecured loans using shell companies,” said a release issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

“Evidence for unaccounted purchase in excess of ₹200 crore has been found. Huge quantity of unaccounted stock was also found in the factory premises of the companies,” stated the release.

As many as 12 bank lockers were unearthed during the search operation. Unaccounted cash worth more than ₹2.10 crore and jewellery amounting to ₹1.07 crore has been seized from different premises. Evidence detected so far, indicates that unaccounted income is likely to exceed ₹300 crore and the four companies have already disclosed additional income to the extent of ₹71 crore consequent to the search.

Officials said further investigations are in progress.