I-T recovers Rs 1.64 cr cash, Mont Blanc pens worth Rs 50 lakhs after raids on retd UP IAS officer
New Delhi/Lucknow, Mar 14: Cash worth over Rs 1.64 crore, Mont Blanc pens valued at Rs 50 lakh, four luxury SUVs and documents indicating 'benami' assets of Rs 300 crore have been recovered during income tax raids on premises linked to a retired Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer, who served in top positions during Mayawati's chief ministership, officials said Wednesday.
The taxman had swooped down on a dozen premises linked to 1979-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Net Ram on Tuesday after it obtained "credible inputs" that the former top bureaucrat and his associates have made "accommodation or bogus entries of about Rs 95 crore from Kolkata-based shell firms" in the past, including during the post-demonetisation period, they said.
They said that during the searches, that are still ongoing, the department recovered a total of Rs 1.64 crore in cash from three houses in Lucknow and Delhi, while another Rs 50 lakh is believed to be stashed in a bank locker, which will soon be opened.
Crisp pink notes of Rs 2,000 form the bulk of the cash recovered, they said.
The officials claimed that the former bureaucrat was "negotiating" for a Lok Sabha ticket from a UP-based party and that is when he came under the scanner of the tax department.
It is understood that the taxman launched the raids after obtaining vitals details of these transactions from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and subsequently mounting surveillance on the officer and his associates.
Officials said the raid teams have also recovered Mont Blanc pens of Rs 50 lakh, four 'benami' luxury cars, including a Mercedes and two Fortuners, and documents that indicate un-taxed assets worth around Rs 225 crore.
Documents related to 30 'shell' firms, in which Net Ram's family members and in-law's were shareholders, have been recovered and are being scrutinised.
"The officers' in laws were also raided and they have expressed complete ignorance about the suspicious transactions that are under the tax radar," a senior official said.
In a few cases, they said, the children of those who are being raided have been found to be the "authorised" persons for operating the accounts of shell companies detected, the official said.
The searches resulted in the detection of six properties in posh locations of Delhi (KG Marg and Greater Kailash-I) and Mumbai (Babulnath on Charni road and Huges road) and three houses in Kolkata purchased "out of bogus share capital of Rs 95 crore", the officials claimed.
As per an I-T department search memo accessed by PTI, the sleuths have recovered "handwritten diaries recording transactions for acquiring shell companies and investments in properties in various locations of UP and Delhi" during the action.
Luxurious interiors at a house in Lucknow and one at GK-I in Delhi, a mini theatre and gym have also been found built, they said.
Net Ram was secretary to then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati during 2002-03, her third stint in power in the state.
The officer has served in various capacities in UP, including heading the excise, sugar industries and cane department, stamp and registration, food and civil supplies department.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
