‘Reddy will have to pay 85 per cent of assets as tax’

According to highly placed sources in the Income Tax department, Rs 1 crore more has been seized from the custody of Sekhar Reddy at Vellore, with the inspection by the department drawing to a close. The total seizure stood at Rs 132.5 crore in hard cash. 

The officials had also seized 177 kg gold bars from Reddy. The officials said the value of the gold bars will be calculated and 85 percent of that amount would also be recovered as tax. 

In all, Sekhar Reddy will have to pay Rs 112.625 crore from the recovered cash towards tax and Rs 44.25 crore as tax towards the value of gold, provided that the gold is valued at Rs 25 lakh per kilogram. Officials said the inspection for the concealed assets at the premises of Sekhar Reddy and his associates Srinivasa Reddy and Prem Reddy was on its final stage. 

“We are now trying to find out whether Reddy had more associates who worked as his benami. We have credible information regarding Sekhar Reddy having more cash stashed up,” a senior Income Tax official said. The Income Tax officials will now start the scrutiny of documents seized during raids at the premises owned by Sekhar Reddy at Chennai and Vellore. Voluminous documents and bank account details have been seized during the raids, apart from documents of properties. 

“We have not started the scrutiny of the documents yet. We expect to find more illegal accounts and property accumulation during the scrutiny. Appropriate action regarding such assets would also be taken in the due course,” the official added. 

The Income Tax department, Chennai had started the raid at the premises of Sekhar Reddy and his associates on December 8 and had seized more than Rs 90 crore in cash and 100 kg of gold on the first day itself. The treasure hunt continued on the coming days and the department recorded the largest seizure of cash and gold in a single operation, which is a record of sorts in the entire country. 

Sekhar Reddy, who started off as a small time contractor at Vellore, soon grew to be a well-connected businessman who procured sand mining licence in Tamil Nadu using his connections with a senior IAS officer. He also became a member of the Tirupathi Tirumala Devasthanam and said to bag most of the government contracts in the State.