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 Rs15 crore during searches carried out at his premises in UP and Delhi.
"Cash worth about Rs5crore and jewellery valued at about Rs10 crore have been seized after operations were conducted at various places in UP 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 Rs600 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.