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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Pune (PTI): Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls, NCP (SP) MLA Ashok Pawar's son has alleged he was kidnapped by a group of persons who demanded Rs 10 crore from him, police said on Sunday.
The police on Saturday registered a First Information Report (FIR) against three men and a woman in this connection, they said.
The accused allegedly asked Rushiraj Pawar, the son of the Shirur MLA in Pune district, to come with them for a meeting with some persons who wanted to join the NCP (SP), as per the FIR.
The accused them took him on their motorbike to a bungalow, as per the FIR registered on Rushiraj Pawar's complaint.
He was also forced to film an obscene video with an unidentified woman, the complainant claimed.
The accused allegedly demanded Rs 10 crore for not circulating the video on social media, the FIR said.
Rushiraj came out of the bungalow on the pretext of arranging the ransom money and escaped. He later approached police and lodged a complaint against the accused.
Based on the complaint, the Shirur police registered the FIR against four persons under relevant legal provisions,.
"As per the complaint received, we have registered a case and further probe is on," Superintendent of Police Pankaj Deshmukh said.
The state assembly polls are scheduled on November 20.