Tax sleuths bust Hawala transaction centre run from Shailendra Nagar
| Date :21-Apr-2019 |
Staff Reporter Raipur:
Whopping cash to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore seized from a single storied A-7 residential building.
Cash stash recovered from three different bikers who fell in trap laid by taxmen.
Building owner identified as Sarva Nand Gehi being grilled by tax enforcers
Tax enforcers from Investigation Wing of Income Tax Department mounted another search on an abandoned A-7 residential building, situated at posh Shailendra Nagar Colony, just to bust a major ‘Hawala’ transaction centre by recovering whopping cash to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore. During the search, the tax officials also got vital information and evidences about alleged connection of several businessmen and traders associated with the Hawala transaction centre run from this single-storied building. It was second day in succession, when the taxmen from Investigation Wing mounted search operation in the city to tighten its noose around the tax evaders. Alok Johri, Principal Director, Investigation (Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh) himself was coordinating and monitoring the real time operations the men engaged in the search. The taxmen informed that a high-speed cash counting machine, one SUV, two motorbikes where seized during the operation.
The motorbikes used to pilot the SUV for ‘Hawala’ transactions. The officers also informed that these operations were carried out specially in afternoon hours. “Following precise intelligence input, our team of taxmen had been doing the ‘recee’ of the all suspected movement to and from the building for past few days. The search was carried out only after it was ascertained that the building was being used as collection centre for Hawala transactions,” a senior official of Income Tax Department told The Hitavada on the condition of anonymity. Sources, in the meantime, revealed that the entire search operation was like a typical Bollywood flick. “Actually, the tax watchdogs, accompanied by local police forcer, entered into this abandoned premises and laid a trap to unearth this whole Hawala racket.
Unaware of the I-T trap, three bikers carrying cash in various denominations reached here one after another at different time slots and all landed in the taxmen dragnet,” the sources added. Sources further said that the tax watchdogs after sometime also managed to get hold of the building owner identified as Sarva Nand Gehi. “A team of tax officials led by Joint Director Income Tax Department (Investigation Wing) Siddhartha Meena was grilling Gehi for his alleged links with the Hawala transaction centre,” the sources added.Sources also averred the building owner was being questioned vigorously to ascertain whether he was aware or not about the illegal transaction of Hawala.
“Efforts were also made to confirm if the building owner had rented out the premises to some Hawala racket operator,” they maintained. Sources confirmed that the tax swoop was likely to be winded up here by past Saturday midnight after which further consequential searches may be carried out very soon.