Sniffing the trail of Chhattisgarh-bound multi-crore Hawala transactions, an army of tax watchdogs from New Delhi on early Friday launched a massive search and seizure operation on 14 locations in the state capital Raipur. The post-dawn swoop covered various premises of two major business groups and their business associates. Concurrently, the tax enforcers also covered other business premises linked with the two groups in Nagpur and Mumbai. The magnitude of the search-ops could be gauged from the fact that as many as 120 taxmen, including over a dozen senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers, were taking part. The taxmen having arrived from New Delhi’s Investigation Wing were being accompanied by a strong squad of 50 armed troopers of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). “The two Raipur-based business groups brought under the ambit of swoop are Wallfort Properties Private Limited and Special Blasts Limited respectively. Teams of tax officials were rummaging through multiple office and residential premises of the two business groups Directors, their family members, business associates and chartered accountants,” knowledgeable sources revealed to ‘The Hitavada’ requesting anonymity.

 

According to the sources, the tax enforcers maintained so much secrecy about the entire operations that even the senior most officials of Raipur-based Income Tax Department’s Investigation Wing were not taken into loop by the time they arrived here in the wee hours of Friday. “In a bid to avoid detection, the whole team took a road route all the way from Nagpur to arrive here in Raipur travelling in 60 hired vehicles. Earlier, the team from Delhi also took a partial halt in Nagpur,” the sources disclosed. Sources averred that the visiting team of income tax officials just roped in half-a-dozen men from Raipur’s Investigation Wing of Income Tax Department to assist them regarding the logistics and geographical landmarks. “The conducting Deputy Director Income Tax (DDIT) for the search-ops from New Delhi just requested Principal Director of Income Tax (Investigation) Sunil Kumar Singh and Additional Director of Income Tax (Investigation) Rituparn Namdeo to extend local manpower for assisting them in operations,” the sources maintained. Sources further affirmed that the search ops, now underway at full steam, has covered Wallfort Group’s Chairman Anil Parakh, its two Directors Pankaj Lahoti and Arpit Parakh, in addition to Special Blasts Limited Chairman Sanjay Choudhari, his younger brother Ajay Choudhari, who is also one of the Directors apart from Awadhesh Jain. “The two groups, who previously have also been covered by the tax watchdogs, were this time under the scanner for their alleged involvement in undertaking a massive Hawala transaction in Chhattisgarh at the behest of a political party leader and a key businessman.

 

The two groups colluded to carry out a massive Hawala transaction and the investigation aims to trace and track those who tasked them to undertake the illegal finances,” the sources hinted. Till the reports last went in for the print, there was no official disclosure by the Income Tax Department regarding the seizure of cash or valuables from the different premises being swarmed by them. However, the sources did confirm that the search operations will continue for next 48 hours.