Top brass of Income Tax Department’s Investigation Wing on Sunday affirmed that their massive crackdown on 18 major commodity traders and brokers in Raipur and Bemetara districts have led to unearthing of ‘concealed transactions’ running into hundreds of crores. These traders and brokers operating at Pan-Chhattisgarh level were in cahoots, pointing towards ‘cartelisation’ of essential commodities and a quantum evasion of several crores. Quite strikingly, in what could be termed as one of Chhattisgarh’s most significant double-digit cash seizure during the so-far conducted searches, a staggering amount totaling Rs 11 crore has been seized within 48-hours of the operations. Additionally, ‘undeclared’ gold jewellery and valuables worth over Rs 2 crore have also been seized. This mind-boggling sum is expected to surge further as teams continue to be engaged in intensive rummaging, with senior taxmen hinting at discovering remaining locations where undisclosed cash might be concealed.

 

If knowledgeable sources are to be believed, the tax investigators arrived to this mind-boggling conclusion after poring through heaps of the unofficial entries and books pertaining to illegal trading and price manipulation, even as the concurrent search and seizure operations completed straight four days in a row and still it is expected to last for any day or two. Meanwhile, in another fresh development, the searches were completed at 32 premises, while tax sleuths were still engaged in rummaging at remaining 18 premises, including office, cold storages and few residences. Also, 3 lockers remain unexamined, fueling speculation of additional caches, while further leads suggest potential discoveries of more cash and jewelry in other yet-to-be-inspected sites, where searches will continue for another 48-hours. “Our investigations say that the traders and brokers covered under the swoop, were maintaining two kinds of records - one official record and a second illicit record of all their business dealings. Some major players among these traders and brokers were indulged in a kind of ‘cartelisation’ of essential commodities, particularly in food grains, which led to artificial escalation of their prices in the retail market and all for the sake of illegal profiteering. Huge quantity of documents - commonly referred to as “kaccha Bahikhata” in oldschool style of trading practices - collected from several premises, including offices, cold storages and godowns, indicate at frequent price manipulation, hoarding and profiteering by these traders and brokers,” averred a senior I-T official, privy to the widespread and far-stretched investigations.

 

Besides that, the modus operandi of tax evasion by these trading and brokerage firms, was found to be their fictitious entities, bogus loss from commodity trading, and re-invoicing through intra-concerns. “While the documents show substantial income, these firms claimed losses through various bogus means to cover up their active involvement in ‘hoarding for profiteering’ through artificial price escalation done at frequent intervals during the past 3-4 years,” said the officer. Spearheaded by Principal Director Income Tax (Investigation-Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh) Sunil Kumar Singh and Additional Director (Investigation) Rituparn Namdeo, the tax department orchestrated the massive search-ops spanning over 50 locations, targeting 20 plush residences as well as 30 office and factory premises, in Raipur and Bemetara districts respectively. The search ops, carried out by 350 taxmen and 150 armed personnel of Chhattisgarh Police, enveloped office and residence premises of Balkishan Mahavar-owned M/s Seva Agro, situated at Nagar Nigam Colony and Maruti Lifestyle in Kota; Mahendra Rathi’s M/s Kishan Sales and M/s J R Traders offices at LalGanga Midas in Fafadih; Kishan Chandak’s residence at Choubey Colony; office and residences of M/s Pratham Traders, M/s Jai Gud Udyog at Radha Mohan Complex in Bhainsthan, Wallfort Enclave near Ramkrishna Care Hospital and office of Sagar Surana in Bemetara district; office and residence of Sanket Kumar Jain and Paras Chand Jain at village Chikheli and Samta Colony; office and residence of Shiv Shankar Gupta-owned M/s Ma Sharda Cold Storage; office, factory and residence of M/s Suraj Pulses Industries, M/s Suraj Besan, M/s Suraj Buildcon in Bhanpuri Industrial Area and Choubey Colony; residences of Neeraj Goyal and Sanjeet Goyal at Choubey Colony; multiple office and factory premises of Kailash Bajaj owned M/s K K Agro Trade Ventures Private Limited at Gondwara and Samta Shopping Arcade in Samta Colony; plant and residence premises of Deepak Mittal-owned M/s Sanjay Grain Products Private Limited at Sakri village and Rajeev Nagar and M/s Rajeshwari Cold Storage in Siltara.