Rs 10 crore in old notes, 6 kg gold seized from flat

The apartment reportedly belonged to gold covering ornament dealer Arjun Hirani from Sowcarpet. The IT officials carried out raids at four places in the city including the shop and residences owned by the businessman and found the notes and gold concealed at an apartment near Central Station. The raids continued till late evening and the officials seized several more incriminating documents. 

According to sources, the department received information regarding illegal cash hoarding by the businessman and did an initial survey to verify the information. The officials got evidence regarding large scale tax evasion and launched inspection at his premises morning. IT officials said, Hirani had been waiting to convert the demonetised currency to new notes as he could not deposit the amount in bank account as he would have to pay a higher tax. 

“We have information that he had been planning to convert the older currency notes into new ones, so that he could stash it as unaccounted money and avoid paying tax,” an IT official told DTNext. Chennai Income Tax Investigation wing in the limelight by effecting the largest seizure of cash and gold in a single operation. The department had recovered Rs 132.5 crore, including Rs 34 crore in new currency and 177 kg of gold from sand miner Sekhar Reddy. 

Cash and gold were seized from Sekhar Reddy’s houses and office premises in Chennai and Vellore. The IT department officials said, the special drive to pull out black money hoarders is on and several more businessmen would be raided in the coming days. Department’s intelligence wing is gathering information regarding bulk purchasers of gold post demonetisation and are also checking the accounts where large sums had been deposited after November 8.