The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure action on a number of hawala operators engaged in the activity of routing and handling unaccounted cash in Delhi region.

The search action has resulted in unearthing of incriminating evidences revealing various shell entities being used for raising bogus purchase/sale bills, and routing of unaccounted funds through several layers of bank accounts. Such shell entities are closed after two months, and new ones are formed.

Further, incriminating documents evidencing suppression of sales and bogus purchases in excess of ₹ 300 crore is detected.

The search action has resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of ₹ 14 crore and Bullion worth ₹ 2 crore.

Further investigations are in progress.

Search and seizure of hawala network exposes shell companies, bogus invoices and layering of unaccounted funds; probe continues. Search and seizure operation uncovered hawala operators using short lived shell entities to generate bogus purchase and sale bills, route and layer unaccounted funds through multiple bank accounts, and suppress sales through fabricated purchases; the action led to seizure of unaccounted cash and bullion and investigations continue to trace beneficiaries and transactional links.