I-T raids on Congress MLA's office in Madhya Pradesh unearth over Rs 450 crore in undisclosed income

On February 18, the I-T department raided the business premises, across 22 locations, owned by the family of Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Nilay Daga.

Unaccounted cash stores of Rs 8 crore, unexplained foreign currency amounting to Rs 44 lakh and information about nine bank lockers were found during the raid, said an NDTV report.

Unexplained cash payments and hawala transactions amounting to more than Rs 15 crore were detected from messages between business groups that produce soya products, the report stated.

"The group introduced unaccounted income to the tune of ₹ 259 crore by way of introduction of share capital at huge premium from Kolkata-based shell companies.... introduced undisclosed income of ₹ 90 crore by way of sale of paper investments in shell companies to another set of shell companies of Kolkata," the CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) said in its statement, report stated.

"None of these companies was found to be operational at given address and the group could not confirm the identity of such paper companies or any of its directors. Many of these paper companies were found to be struck off by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs," the CBDT added.

The group had also claimed a bogus loss of Rs 52 crore loss "by indulging in intra-group out-of-exchange contract settlement" to offset its profits, the report added.

The group has also claimed incorrect Long Term Capital Gains exemption of over Rs 27 crore on sale of shares of a group entity, the CBDT stated, according to the report.