Chennai: In a major haul post-demonetisation, officials of the Income-Tax department today conducted raids in the residential and office premises of jewellery shop owners and a hotel and seized Rs 90 crore, including Rs 70 crore cash in new Rs 2,000 currencies and 100 kg of gold. IT sources said multiple teams of IT officials conducted the raids at the premises of businessmen Shekar Redy, Srinivas Reddy and Prem to flush out the black money stocked in the form of new currencies and gold.
The raids were held at eight places in the city, including at the posh Annanagar and upmarket T.Nagar areas, where they have their residential and office premises and also at a hotel in T.Nagar, from where cash and gold were seized from a room.The searches, which began around noon, were expected to continue till late in the evening. Some incriminating documents were also seized during the raids, the sources said.
The raids were conducted following information that these businessmen had allegedly converted the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currencies as gold and new legal tender notes of Rs 2,000. The were also being questioned to ascertain whether they were part of any money laundering or money exchange racket or agents of some bigwigs. (UNI)