Zeenews Bureau
Lucknow/New Delhi: Was Rs 100 crore recovered from the basement of a mall owned by liquor baron Ponty Chadha? A section of the media had claimed so but reports, Thursday, claimed that no money was found during the raids on Chadha’s premises.
It was reported that I-T sleuths had found a 6X6 feet vault in the basement of the Centrestage Mall in Noida. When the vault was opened using gas cutters – with CRPF provide the security cover - over Rs 100 crore in hard cash was recovered.
But now a section of the media is claiming that only jewellery worth Rs 4 crore and Rs 50 lakh cash was seized, while others claimed that no cash was recovered during raids on Chadha, who is undoubtedly North India’s biggest liquor baron.
Searches were conducted in Delhi at 13 locations including at the posh Sainik Farms and in Lajpat Nagar. In UP, meanwhile, I-T teams comprising 200 officials undertook similar operations at six locations in Noida, Moradabad and the state capital, Lucknow.
Chadha is said to be in Dubai at present in connection with a family function.
The searches were initiated after the department got inputs regarding alleged tax evasion by firms associated with him, the sources said.
The department, according to the sources, were also looking at the possibility of illegal sale of liquor by certain firms in the run up to the UP Assembly polls.
I-T sleuths also searched the properties of two of his alleged associates--Lalit Kapoor and Gurjeet Kochhar--in Delhi and is expected to question them about certain transactions.
As per sources, the searches were also related to the alleged mis-pricing of huge liquor consignments in the state and other places.
56-year-old Chadha shot into limelight after Maywati handed over the entire distributorship of liquor in UP to him.
Besides liquor and multiplexes, Chadha had recently bought five sugar mills in UP and also ventured into film production.
In 2009, media reports pegged his enterprise at over Rs 6000 crore in size by quoting the man himself.
First Published: Thursday, February 02, 2012, 10:16