New Delhi, March 17 (FN Agency) The Income Tax Department carried out a search operation on a cable operator of Mumbai, a State Government employee and the businesses related to him and seized cash of Rs 66 lakh, an official statement said here on Thursday. A total of 26 premises spread over Mumbai, Pune, Sangli and Ratnagiri were covered in the search, which was conducted on March 8, 2022. During the search, it was found that a parcel of land at Dapoli was allegedly purchased by a prominent politician of Maharashtra in 2017 for a consideration of Rs 1 crore but it was got registered in 2019. The land was subsequently sold to one of the persons covered in the search action in 2020 for a consideration of Rs 1.10 crore. In between, a resort was allegedly built on the same land from 2017 to 2020. By the time the parcel of land was registered in the name of the said politician, substantial construction of the resort was completed. Later, the resort was almost complete when the property was sold by the politician to the cable operator in 2020. ”It transpires that the relevant facts about the construction of the resort were not intimated to the Registration authorities and accordingly, the stamp duty was paid only for the registration of the land on both the occasions — in 2019 and in 2020,” the statement said.
”Evidence found during the search has revealed that the construction of the resort started in 2017 and more than Rs 6 crore was spent in cash on construction of the resort. Cost of construction of the same has not been accounted for either by the person searched or the politician in their books of account,” it added. Search in the case of the State Government official revealed that he, his family members and relatives had allegedly amassed huge wealth in the form of properties at prime localities at Pune, Sangli and Baramati, over a period of last 10 years. It is found that the construction business, being run by the relatives of the employee, received many contracts from the state government. ”Search operation has also unearthed evidences of inflation of contract expenses through bogus purchase and bogus sub-contracts aggregating to Rs 27 crore. Evidence regarding unaccounted cash receipt of Rs. 2 crore in sale of land at Baramati has also been detected. Further investigation with regard to the tax evasion in construction business, is under progress,” the statement added.