The Income Tax Department will soon summon the promoters of three Rajasthan-based groups whom it had raided earlier this week for alleged tax evasion, officials said on Saturday.
They said the sleuths had recorded the statements of some employees of these firms when the searches were launched on July 13 at 43 premises in Mumbai, Delhi, Kota and Jaipur, amid a brewing political crisis in the ruling Congress party in the desert state.
Some more summons will be issued to the main promoters of the business groups that were searched, officials said.
The questioning is required to seek more details on their businesses and also to confront them with the material seized and collected, they said.
Officials had said about Rs 12 crore cash and jewellery worth Rs 1.5 crore were seized after the searches.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy-making body for the tax department, had said on Monday that "search and survey operations were conducted on three groups at 20 premises in Jaipur, six in Kota, eight in Delhi and nine in Mumbai".
While the department did not identify the groups, officials said the premises of Om Metals Infraprojects Limited in Delhi and Rajasthan, Jaipur's Amrapali Jewels promoted by Rajasthan Congress leader Rajiv Arora, those of another Congress leader Dharmendra Rathore and R K Sharma, promoter of a luxury hotel in Jaipur, were covered.
The searches came amidst an intense power tussle between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy and former PCC chief Sachin Pilot. The action was criticised by the Congress party even as the department said the raids were carried out based on "reliable inputs" of tax evasion by the groups under the scanner.
"One of the groups covered is involved in several business activities like hotel, hydro power projects, metal and auto sectors. It is suspected to have invested unaccounted income generated from these activities into real estate," the CBDT had said.
The second group, it said, is engaged in the business of trading of silver and gold jewellery and antique silver articles and has associate enterprises in various countries like the UK and the USA, and also has properties and bank accounts in these countries.
"The main allegation against the group is that a substantial part of its silver jewellery business is carried out outside the regular books of accounts," the CBDT had said.
The third group, it added, is involved in hotel business. "The source of investment in the same remains to be verified," it said.
The CBDT had said several incriminating evidences in the form of loose papers, diaries, digital data were found that indicate bullion trading in cash, investment of cash in properties among others.
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