I-T unearths `1,500 cr stash pumped as fraud entries

IN ITS risk-based analysis of cash deposits in bank accounts after demonetisation, the Income Tax Department has detected racket of entry operators involving shell firms and hawala operators dealing with unaccounted cash worth over Rs 1,500 crore.

As per the analysis report, a group of hawala dealers in Delhi were caught for illegal transactions worth Rs 930 crore after November 8.

In another case in Delhi, the tax department detected entry operators trying to launder Rs 200 crore cash using 80 accounts. Investigations have also revealed similar cases in a bank branch in Noida, where deposits in more than 100 bank accounts were used to launder more than Rs 200 crore, the report said.

“Action on entry operators in Kolkata, Gurgaon,charkhidadri,chitradurg haveled to detection of laundering of cash of another Rs 200 crores,” it said.

A case in Bihar’s Gaya was similarly detected, the report said, where a person was allegedly trying to launder Rs 13 crore of a Delhi-based businessman.

Entry operators are persons having large number of shell companies and other entities. They act as intermediary to facilitate conversion of black into white or to reduce taxable income of various persons through providing different services.

The report said that the modus operandi followed is the same across the country. “Cash is deposited in bank accounts of paper companies or accounts fraudulently and immediately transferred through RTGS to other similar fraudulent accounts. After transferring the money through multiple layers, it is withdrawn from the bank system as cash, demand drafts or converted into bullion. No trail of the actual beneficiary is seemingly left,” it said.