New Delhi/Lucknow: Eleven bank lockers of
liquor baron Ponty Chadha were sealed on Friday by the Income Tax
department which claimed to have seized cash and jewellery
worth Rs 15 crore during searches carried out at his premises
in U P and Delhi.
"Cash worth about Rs five crore and jewellery valued at
about Rs 10 crore have been seized after operations were
conducted at various places in U P and Delhi," I-T sources
said after raids at the premises of Chadha and his associates.
Eleven bank lockers have been sealed. However, the
premises, including a mall owned by Chadha in Noida near
Delhi, covered during the searches are free for operation by
the owners, they said.
The I-T sleuths have seized two laptops that have been
sent for forensic examination at a department-owned
laboratory in the national capital.
When contacted, a spokesperson of Waves Infratech, owned
by Chadha, declined to get into specifics of seizures claimed
to have been made by I-T and insisted that there was no
wrongdoing by the Chadha group.
"There is no income which remains undisclosed to the
government authorities," the spokesperson said reiterating
what was put out in a statement by the real estate group.
The I-T department has acceded a request made by Chadha,
who has returned after a visit to Dubai, that its operations
be suspended in view of a family wedding on February 9, the
sources said.
Chadha has promised to extend full cooperation to tax
authorities in their probe of alleged tax evasion in his
various businesses including liquor sale and real estate.
The tax department is scrutinising transaction bills
claimed to be worth Rs 600 crore. They are examining over
5,000 pages of computer printed documents, papers of mining
leases in U P and other investments made by Chadha, the
sources said.
The tax department had begun the operations Chadha and
his associates on February 1, covering 13 locations in Delhi
including at the posh Sainik Farms, Lajpat Nagar, New Friends
Colony while in UP, I-T teams comprising 200 officials,
undertook similar operations at six locations in Noida,
Moradabad and state capital Lucknow.
PTI
First Published: Friday, February 03, 2012, 21:12