Archives for December 2016

Chennai: A fresh seizure of Rs 24 crore cash in new notes was today made by the Income Tax department, adding to the biggest haul of cash and gold post demonetisation, in which over Rs 142 crore unaccounted assets have been recovered in tax operations so far here.

Officials said the fresh seizure of new currency, in Rs 2000 notes, was made by the sleuths from a car in Vellore on the insistence of the accused presently being interrogated in the case.

With this amount, the total seizure in the case has now gone upto Rs 166 crore in a single case.

The department had seized Rs 142 crore undisclosed assets – that includes about Rs 10 crore in new notes and gold bars weighing 127 kg — during searches at multiple locations in Chennai, for the last two days, to check tax evasion.

This largest seizure of new currency notes in the country, after the old Rs 500/1,000 notes were scrapped on November 8, was seized after raids were launched on Thursday on eight premises of a group engaged in sand mining in Tamil Nadu.

“The group has sand mining licence for the entire state of Tamil Nadu. Eight premises (six residential and two offices) were covered in the search.

“During the search, Rs 96.89 crore cash in old high denomination notes and Rs 9.63 crore in new Rs 2000 currency notes along with gold weighing 127 kg worth approximately Rs 36.29 crore were found and seized, as unaccounted assets,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes, policy-making body for the I-T department, had said in a statement issued in Delhi.

It had added that the searches are “still in progress at four out of the total 8 premises and more specific details including modus operandi would emerge after examination of the documents and other evidence detected during the search.”

Officials had said S Reddy, a contractor working with the state government, has claimed the entire money and the gold as his own and is being questioned along with few other people.

A senior department official said this seizure of gold and cash was “an unprecedented amount that the tax department has seized in recent times.”

The department, the officials said, carried out the searches based on intelligence inputs about the activities of Reddy and few others for the last few days.

Officials said the agency was investigating how the new notes in such a large quantity were stashed by the individual.

The bundles of the new Rs 2000, that were seized, had no banking slips on the them and were jumbled up to mislead investigators, they said.

The officials said a number of documents related to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of sale/purchase have also been seized by the tax sleuths.

“He (Reddy) is a contractor working with the state government.He is claiming the entire cash and gold to be his own. Further probe is on,” they had said.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: With banks closed for three consecutive days from today and ATMs still not functioning to full capacity, the ongoing cash crisis may escalate further leaving residents high and dry for want of cash during the weekend.

Customers are venting anger as most of the ATMs are running dry. As banks remained closed, long to moderate queues were seen outside different cash-loaded ATMs, while some ATMs continued to flash ‘ATM Closed’ placard.

Citizens who stood by government’s decision to demonetise high denomination notes earlier, are now running out of patience following reports that huge amount of cash in new currency is being seized by the Income Tax and police authorities across the country.

“This is really shocking and shameful that a common man is dying in the bank and ATM queue to get Rs 2,000 and Rs 10,000 but the high and mighty are stashing cash of over Rs 60 crores and Rs 80 crores … where are these notes coming from? Can this be possible without nexus of bank officials,” a former banker from Indian Bank said while letting out his aggression.

Referring to the cash seizure of Rs 85 lakh in Rs 2,000 notes from a person at Matunga in central Mumbai by police yesterday, he said, “Bankers are turning the bold decision by the Prime Minister into a meaningless exercise.”

Meanwhile, few banks including a private sector bank kept their branch open for accounting purposes. A senior executive of the bank having branch at Ghatkopar (East), said, “We have been asked to keep the bank today for accounting purpose and we are doing the same here. It is not open for public.”

Interestingly, few ATMs in south Mumbai dispensing Rs 2,000 notes were found empty, an indication that people are not in favour of possessing this high denomination note.

Due to the holidays starting from December 10, all the banks would remain closed for three consecutive days. December 10 being a second Saturday, December 11 being Sunday and December 12 being Milad-un-Nabi, Prophet’s Birthday.

Ajeet Kumar, an executive working with a pharmaceutical company, who withdrew Rs 2,000 from an ATM in suburban Andheri, said, “It seems that the real trouble will begin from tomorrow (Sunday) as few ATMs are currently filled with cash which would be over by evening today.”

“It would be interesting to see how people will cope up with cash crunch for next two days after cash in the ATMs dries up,” he said.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday underwent a kidney transplant at AIIMS, with the organ being harvested from a living unrelated donor. According to sources at AIIMS, the nearly five-hour-long surgery was conducted at the cardio-thoracic centre by a team of doctors including AIIMS Director M C Mishra, surgeons V K Bansal, V Seenu and nephrologist Sandeep Mahajan.

“The surgery started at 9 am and ended at 2.30 pm following which the minister has been shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the same building,” the sources said.

“Living, unrelated donor could be anyone who is emotionally attached to the recipient, such as friend, a relative, a neighbour or an in-law. As no suitable donor was available in the immediate family, the transplant was done with the kidney from a living unrelated donor.

“The clearance from the authorisation committee was obtained prior to the procedure,” the sources at AIIMS said, adding.

According to doctors, 64-year-old Swaraj has been suffering from diabetes for quite a long time. After the kidney failure diagnosis, she was put on maintenance dialysis.

“She was undergoing dialysis thrice a week,” a senior doctor said.

On November 16, Swaraj had tweeted that she was in AIIMS because of kidney failure.

“I am in AIIMS because of kidney failure. Presently, I am on dialysis. I am undergoing tests for a kidney transplant. Lord Krishna will bless,” Swaraj had tweeted.

Swaraj, who has been in and out of the hospital for last few months, was admitted to AIIMS on November 7. After Swaraj made public her health condition on social media, support had poured in for her with several people offering their kidneys for transplant. Earlier she was admitted to AIIMS in April for treatment of pneumonia and other health issues.

(Agencies)

Chennai: The ruling AIADMK today released a list of 203 deceased persons, saying they died of “shock” over the demise of party supremo and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on December 5, taking the number of toll in this regard to 280.

The party headquarters released the list containing the names of 203 such deceased persons from different parts of the state, including Chennai, Vellore, Tiruvallore, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore, Krishnagiri, Erode and Tirupur districts.

The party condoled their death and announced a welfare fund of Rs three lakh each to families of the deceased.

Earlier, the party had said that 77 persons had died of shock and grief following Jayalalithaa’s death and announced a similar sum as relief to the dead persons’ families.

The number of people having died of shock over Jayalalithaa’s death stands at 280 now.

Hospitalised on September 22 and having suffered a cardiac arrest on December 4, the 68-year-old chief minister passed away the next day.

(Agencies)