Amid rush for white money, Pune businessman converts cash into black
While several businessmen with hoards of black money have come under the lens for exchanging illegal tenders with legitimate currency notes using intermediaries, here is a case of a Pune-based industrialist who has been caught converting his legitimate income into black money—the transaction is over Rs 200 crore.
The Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) has registered a case against a Pune industrialist manufacturing automobile parts. During a raid on the industrialist's residence in Kalyani Nagar in Pune on Thursday, officials seized Rs 13 lakh in new currency notes besides documents authenticating his involvement in more than Rs 200 crore transferred to his agents through the banking channel using his own company accounts and legitimate income.
A source said subsequent raids on one of the intermediaries connected to the industrialist revealed the agent had been raising bogus bills for supply of auto parts. The modus operandi showed the industrialist in question had made payments based on bogus bills raised by the agent. The agent then withdrew the payments from banks and delivered the cash to the industrialist.
Based on these excess payments of Rs 200 crore, the industrialist had also claimed and received Rs 20 crore in duty drawback from the government, which is again a case of fraud the authorities are looking into. The DGCEI officials raided at least seven premises of the industrialist and his agents and seized several key documents leading to the unravelling of the central excise duty fraud.