The Income Tax Department claimed to have unearthed a transaction of illegal money to a mind-boggling tune of several hundred crores here on Friday, the day two of state-wide search operations mounted on over two dozen premises fanned across six districts. The searches are underway on a group of individuals, hawala dealers and businessmen in Raipur, Bhilai, Durg, Mahasamund, Raigarh, Bilaspur and Korba districts respectively.

Most strikingly, a team of taxmen on day two of search operations also managed to lay their hands on Surya Kant Tiwari and his money courier Nikhil Chandrakar soon after they landed by an evening flight at Swami Vivekananda Airport (SVA) at around 6 pm. The duo were served summons for questioning under Section 131 of Income Tax Act, 1961 and were taken to Aayakar Bhawan, the composite building housing multiple wings of Central Financial Task Force Agencies at Civil Lines here.

The two were handed over by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel to a team of taxmen reinforced with the presence of armed troopers from Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) right outside the arrival gate of SVA.

The two have been subjected to volleys of questionnaires for the purpose of recording their statement by taxmen under Section 131 (1) A of Income Tax Act. However, unconfirmed reports stated that Surya Kant Tiwari and his money courier Nikhil Chandrakar were intercepted by a separate team of taxmen from Bengaluru Airport. But there was no official confirmation to this effect. “Our taxmen have recovered heaps of incriminating documents pertaining with purchase of immovablepropertiesworthseveralhundredcrores and all these purchases came handy by a continuous flow of illegalmoneygeneratedfromunaccountedcash through mining, coal washeries and allied transpor business,” one of the knowledgeable sources connected with the ongoingoperationsconfidedto‘TheHitavada’,requesting anonymity. According to the sources, the second day of tax swoop also led to the seizure of cash amounting to nearly Rs 12 crore, in addition to gold jewellery worth another Rs 7 crores. Moreover, the tax investigators also traced over a dozen bank lockers being operated by certain individuals of this group and would be opened at later course of the investigation even as ‘Prohibitory Orders’ (PO) have been placed on them, But once the PO is lifted, these bank lockers may open a pandora’s box of illegal money transaction, they added. “The search action was mounted on the basis of credible inputs, intelligence and evidence of generation of hugeunaccountedcashfromillegalminingandits transportationbusiness andtransferofthesametosome highprofile public servants of Chhattisgarh Government, accommodation entries from shell firms to rout the illegal money and undisclosed investment in immovable properties includingmultiplecoalwasheriesinthestate,” a senior Income Tax official revealed to this newspaper. According to this official, the search operation, now in full swing afteritcommenced from earlyThursdaymorning,haveenvelopedSaumyaChaurasia,DeputySecretary to theChief Minister, Congress leader Surya KantTiwari, hismoneycourierNikhilChandrakar,transporterJoginder Singh, lawyer Lamikant Tiwari, private contractor Ajay Naidu, apart from their business associates and allied partners.“Multiplepremises includingresidences,office, coal washeries and few other places have been brought under the ambit of the concurrent search operations,” theofficialadded.Sources,inthemeantime,alsoaffirmed thatthe entire operationwasbeingoverseenby topbrass of Central Board of DirectTaxes (CBDT), Government of India (GoI) wherein Director General (Investigation) Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh Ajay Shrivastava and PrincipalDirector(Investigation)AshokTripathiwereoverseeing and coordinating with the men on the ground. “Inall,around145taxinvestigatorsropedinfromKolkata, Bengaluru, Nagpur, Delhi, Bhopal and Raipur, are taking part in the search operations, which will last for another couple of days. These taxmen have been provided with armed security entailment of CRPF troopers, numbering around 150andpurposely ropedinfromNew Delhi and their presence is meant to deter any kind of resistance, which so far have not been reported at any place of the operations,” the sources maintained. Out of nearly Rs 12 crore unaccounted seized from multiple locations, aloneasum of Rs 6.50 crore was foundfroma locationinMahasamunddistrict.Apropos, gold jewelleries weighing over 12 kilograms were also seized from various premises, which were being evaluatedbydesignatedvalueroftheIncomeTax Department.