Farmers Movement Archive

IT raids on Ayali, realtor led to seizure of ₹4.3 cr: CBDT

The recent Income Tax (IT) raids on two real estate developers, including Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Dakha MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali, have led to seizure of unaccounted cash and unexplained jewellery worth around ₹4.3 crore.Issuing a statement on Saturday, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) stated that the searches have resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of about ₹2 crore, besides foreign exchange and unexplained jewellery of around ₹2.3 crore. Raids were conducted on Ayali and developers/promoters of a real estate project in the South City area of Ludhiana - Sunview Enclave. In total, 40 premises, including residences and offices, were covered in a two-day raid. According to the CBDT statement, major finding after the operation against the groups is about the receipt of unaccounted cash on property transactions. Documentary evidences in the nature of ‘agreement to sale’ (known as ‘biyana’ in local parlance) for certain properties have been seized. These documents indicate that the ‘agreement to sale’ for plots has been executed at much higher amount or rate as compared to the consideration disclosed in the registered sale deed of the plot. It has further been stated that ‘incriminating’ documents in the form of lose sheets, excel sheets showing calculation of receipt of funds for certain property transactions, soft data, chats from mobile phones of the persons concerned, etc. were also recovered. Probe shows that unaccounted cash expenditure has been incurred on construction of the residential house of one of the key persons. In one of the groups, defaults on compliances for the provisions of tax deduction at source have also been detected with regard to payments made to the sellers of the land, etc. Ayali and his supporters termed the searches part of political vendetta by the BJP-led Union government as he had been supporting the farmer agitation against the three farm laws.

Hindustan Times

28-11-2021

Chandigarh