The Income Tax (I-T) searches on contractors and realtors in Bengaluru that yielded a large cache of unaccounted money — ₹42 crore and ₹45 crore from two locations in the city — has led to a slugfest between the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS), and the ruling Congress.
The BJP and the JD(S), now in an alliance, have alleged that the recovered money was proceeds of corruption linked to clearing bills and were meant to fund the Congress for the upcoming Assembly elections in five States. The Congress has called the raids “politically motivated” and said they coincided with the election season.
The raids that went on for four days against “government contractors and real estate developers” in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and New Delhi recovered ₹94 crore in cash and ₹8 crore worth of gold jewellery, diamonds and luxury watches, totalling ₹102 crore, the I-T Department said. “The modus operandi of tax evasion detected indicates that these contractors were involved in reducing their income by inflation of expenses by booking bogus purchases, non-genuine claim of expenses with sub-contractors and claiming ineligible expenses,” the I-T department further said.
