The income tax department unearthed incriminating data related to alleged tax evasion by Rajkot-based real estate group the Ladani Group.
The I-T department searched 30 premises of the Ladanis and their close relatives on February 27 for five days. However, they couldn’t find the papers and other data related to black money.
The officials then took the help of the police and started surfing CCTVs to ascertain the movement of important people associated with the Ladanis.
The I-T sleuths scanned through 450 CCTV for a week and narrowed down the location of crucial data and files of black money of the Ladani Group to a slum behind the PGVCL main office on University Road.
Ankit Shira, company accountant, and his associate Raj Sisodia, were handling all the data related to black money transactions of the group and the former had chosen a makeshift room in the slums to hide the evidence.
“We found that Ladani’s confidante frequently visited a slum behind the PGVCL office and came out within 5-10 minutes. The street leading to the slums was very narrow. We visited the place but it was very congested and it was tough to ascertain where he was going. One CCTV footage showed him walking to a small room. On searching the room, we found a laptop and physical files which gave the details of Rs 500 crore tax evasion,” a senior I-T officer said. Shira had rented out this room for Rs 4,000 a month. He and Sisodiya were the only persons in the group who knew about this location. Shira changed the secret locations to hide data every four months and always chose an inaccessible slum area.
CCTV footage showed Shira and his wife leaving their apartment with two suitcases and returning after 75 minutes. The sleuths traced their mobile phone locations and found they had gone to his father-in-law’s house. His father-in-law gave the bags to his nephew, who kept them at a neighbour’s house. All people were traced from their phone’s location and Rs 1.25 crore was found in the bags.
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