Rs 4 crore unaccounted cash seized in Karnataka
Bengaluru, April 27: The Income Tax department has seized Rs 4 crore unaccounted cash and 6.5 kg gold jewellery from three state contractors in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Davangere in poll-bound Karnataka, said an official on Friday.
"The unaccounted cash and gold jewellery were found during simultaneous raids on the contractors on Thursday and were seized subsequently," said Joint Income Tax Joint Commissioner G. Ramesh in a statement here.
Of the Rs 4 crore cash, Rs 1.2 crore was found in a moving car after a hot pursuit by the sleuths of the department's investigation wing.
"Besides cash and jewellery, we got evidence of inflated purchases, payments to fake sub-contractors, fraudulent labour payments and unaccounted cash payments," Ramesh said.
The department is on the lookout for hoarded cash in Karnataka and across the country which had recently resulted in the shortage of currency notes in some states.
During raids on April 24-26, the department seized Rs 6.76 crore of unaccounted cash from four government contractors in Mysuru.
Since the May 12 state assembly elections were announced on March 27, the tax department has seized Rs 10.62 crore unaccounted cash and gold jewellery valued at Rs 1.33 crore.
Intelligence collected by the investigation wing also indicated that several contractors across the state were possessing huge stocks of cash in Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes.
Earlier, the tax sleuths seized Rs 4.13 crore in cash and 4.52 kg gold jewellery valued at Rs 1.32 crore during raids conducted across the state over the last three weeks.
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Probe launched as 25 tigers reported missing from Ranthambore Tiger Reserve
In response to alarming findings in a recent internal report, Rajasthan’s Chief Wildlife Warden, Pavan Kumar Upadhyay, has established a three-member committee to investigate the reported disappearance of 25 tigers from the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. Upadhyay’s order, dated November 4, notes ongoing concerns in tiger monitoring data, which indicate the absence of concrete evidence for the whereabouts of 11 tigers for over a year and 14 others for less than a year. Ranthambore, home to around 75 tigers, recently lost tigers T-58 and T-86.
According to Upadhyay, multiple reminders were issued to the Field Director of Ranthambore to address the issue, yet conditions remain unsatisfactory. The committee, composed of senior Forest Department officials—APCCF (Wildlife) Rajesh Kumar Gupta, Dr. T Mohan Raj, and Manas Singh—has been directed to submit a comprehensive report within two months. Their tasks include investigating the efforts made by field authorities to locate the missing tigers, examining records, recommending disciplinary actions if needed, and providing suggestions to improve the reserve’s monitoring systems.
