J&K Bank case: I-T Department raids premises of a Srinagar-based business group

The Income Tax Department on Tuesday conducted search and seizure operations on a prominent Srinagar-based business group. The I-T officials conducted search and seizure operations at eight premises in Srinagar and 1 each at Bangalore and Delhi. The business group is engaged in the business of transportation, manufacturing of silk yarn, hospitality, retail trading of Kashmir Arts & Crafts etc.

It is learnt that none of the members of the group is regular in filing their Income Tax Returns. As a one time settlement, the group has got their loans of Rs 170 crore with Jammu and Kashmir Bank restructured for a sum of Rs 77 crore, out of which, the group has paid only Rs 50.34 crore to Jammu and Kashmir Bank so far and remaining Rs 27.66 crore is yet to be paid. 

During the search, evidence has been found by I-T sleuths indicating that the one-time settlement of the loan from J&K Bank has been done through the connivance of a senior J&K Bank officer who was receiving several out of turn promotions. 

During the search, evidence has also been found relating to:
• sale of undisclosed property worth Rs.22 crore.
• agreement to sell Transport business for Rs.9.10 crore.
• undisclosed profit of Rs.15-20 crore on account of sale of Cold Storage plant at Lassipora. It was found that the cost of this project was inflated to Rs.47 crore instead of the actual cost of Rs.17 crore. This was done to claim more subsidy from the government by raising inflated and bogus bills. The business group had taken loan for this project from J&K Bank.
• undisclosed properties at Sonmarg (Rs.2.68 crore), Pahalgam (Rs.3.55 crore) and Bangalore (Rs.1.00 crore).
• one shop in partnership purchased for Rs.1.02 crore in Delhi

The I-T sleuths have also seized digital evidence and the analysis of it is in progress.