IT raids on fish industry unearths illegal wealth of Rs. 195 crores

Mangaluru: In the recent raids conducted in Mangaluru and Udupi, the IT sleuths have declared of recovering 195 crore worth of illegal wealth in three major groups of fish-processing industries.

The income tax department with the help of officials from Mangaluru, Udupi and Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi, Belagavi and Panaji conducted raids on several fish-processing industries.

The searches, which began on February 8, also targeted agents employed to procure raw fish. Some end users of the processed food were also verified.

During the raids, the officials found that various benami entities were floated in the name of relatives and employees to make unaccounted (for) investments, in violation of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act,” the department said in a statement.

Rs 195 crore worth of illegal wealth, and Rs 88 lakh was unaccounted-for cash.

“The same or similar modus is believed to be followed by many entities and individuals connected with the fishing industry. All such persons may like to come forward and pay due taxes on their own,” they said.