IT dept searches in Surat find Unaccounted Business Transactions worth Rs.700 Crore by 2 Real Estate Companies

The Directorate of Investigations of the income tax department in Surat discovered unreported transactions totalling Rs.700 crore, during inspections of the offices of two real estate companies.

With the assistance of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), the police, and private properties, IT officers combed through the footage of about 250 surveillance cameras to track documents that were allegedly moved around by one of the companies’ employees.

The issue was discovered while the DI was looking into claims made by a real estate company that it had sold buildings but failed to record them in its account books in order to avoid paying taxes. The DI discovered that the group had done business with another real estate company when searching the company’s premises.

Along with their teams of more than sixty employees, DI Additional Director Vibhor Badoni and Assistant Director Devn Keshwala searched the two companies’ locations in 25 Surat regions between December 8 and December 13.

According to the DI, one of the companies had “hidden several business-related documents” in the homes of their lower-level employees, which were not represented in its accounts. The officers discovered this during the searches.

As per Directorate of Investigations, one of the companies had “hidden several business-related documents” in the homes of their lower-level employees, which were not represented in its accounts. The officers discovered this during the searches.

When the searches concluded on Wednesday night, the DI discovered that both companies had concealed transactions totaling more than Rs.700 crore. Additionally, the police took from the companies cash and jewelry valued at Rs.10 crore. According to them, these companies’ more than fifteen bank lockers have been sealed.

“We found the statements of an employee of one of the companies unsatisfactory and checked the CCTV camera footage of his apartment… we found him leaving with bags full of documents on his bike,” a search operation officer stated. We tracked down the employee with assistance from SMC and the police, and discovered that he had concealed the documents in someone else’s home.

“The documents had been moved to another location by the time our personnel arrived at the house. Once more, we examined CCTV footage to follow the transit of documents. We discovered that the worker moved the paperwork to five apartments in five different places. prior to ultimately being able to locate the documents,” he continued.