Income Tax department unearths Rs 1400 crore of benami transactions of diamantaires and realtors in Surat

Surat (Gujarat) : The Income Tax department said it has identified dozens of benami transactions and attached properties worth Rs 1,400 crore in the search and seizure operation conducted on the two diamond firms and more than  a dozen real estate developers in the last three days in Surat and Mumbai on Monday.

The I-T department swooped down on the diamantaires and realtors in Surat a day after the first phase of polling ended on December 1.

About 150 I-T personnel from Surat, Vadodara and Ahmedabad joined the operation led by Surat’s Investigation Wing of the Income Tax department on December 2. Over 40 locations including houses, offices and diamond factories were searched.

The raids were conducted at Bhavani Gems and Dhanera Diamonds owned by Arvind Ajbani alias Arvind Bichhu and realtors—Ramesh Chogath, Naresh Video alias Naresh Shah, Kadar Kothmir, Himmat Singh, Janak Dalal etc.

I-T department found that the owners of Bhavani Gems had hidden documents worth crores of rupees in the small electronics shop located in Varachha.

Sources said about Rs 300 crore worth of documents related to the disproportionate asset and income and Rs 15 crore in cash and jewellery were seized during the search and seizure operation. The I-T department has recovered huge amount of documents including share certificates, mutual fund investments, diaries on the realty projects, and other documents.

According to the I-T officials, the realtors and diamond firm owners were running a network of  private money lending business and they were collecting hefty interest rates from the people. A huge amount of diaries on money lending have been recovered during the search and seizure operation.

More than a dozen bank lockers of the tax evaders have been seized in Surat and Mumbai. The I-T officials stated that they are going to operate the bank lockers once the search operation concludes.