IT department conducts raid on 'prominent group' involved in Real Estate

The Income Tax (IT) department conducted search and seizure operation on a "prominent group" involved in Real Estate Development, covering more than 40 premises across Mumbai and Pune, Finance Ministry said on Friday.

The search and seizure operations were conducted on July 27.

"During the course of search operations, the Department unearthed the evidences related to receipt of 'On Money' on sale of commercial and residential blocks, bogus unsecured loans taken, bogus Long Term Capital Gains and various other sham transactions to evade income aggregating to about Rs.700 crore," Finance Ministry said in its statement.

The search action has unravelled peculiar transactions wherein by way of accounting jugglery, income on transactions worth about Rs 525 crore has been evaded, it said.

Finance Ministry in its statement said that 'On Money' receipt on sale of Residential or Commercial Blocks amounting to Rs 100 crore has been corroborated during the search.

The statement also claimed that during the search, "incriminating evidence" was unearthed pertaining to modus operandi establishing the introduction of accommodation loans by the group, which have been found to be bogus.

"Moreover, the use of entry providers/hawala operators for entries of long term capital gains by the promoters of this real estate group have been affirmed during the search action. The action has also resulted in the detection of jewellry worth approximately Rs.14 crore, which is under verification," the statement read.

The investigation and search action is still in progress.