Chennai: Income Tax dept raids businessman's house, recovers Rs 10 crore

The Income Tax department officials on Monday raided a businessman's house in Chennai and seized Rs 10 crore in cash and 6 kg of gold jewellery as part of the anti-black money raids in the city. 

Officials carried out the raid at a trader's house who had dealings in imitation jewellery, which is located in Periamet area of the city and recovered demonetised currency of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 amounting to Rs 10 crore, Press Trust of India reported.

"Following information that some people in North Chennai were planning to exchange old currency notes, we raided the three apartments belonging to an imitation gold jewellery businessman called Arjun Kumar Hirani. We are checking whether Hirani is a hawala trader," an IT department official was quoted as saying by the Times of India. 

Similarly, on Saturday, the Income Tax (IT) department seized assets worth Rs 10.50 crore from a tea seller-turn-financier following raids that were conducted against him in Surat, Gujarat. The raids were part of the anti-black money crackdown post the November 8 demonetisation move of the central government.

Recently, the IT department busted a money exchange racket in Chennai that involved three persons, including an industrialist. The seizures included old notes as well as new (Rs 2,000) currency notes worth about Rs 90 lakh and 100 kg of gold.

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes across the country, there have been several cases of the IT department seizing cash running into lakhs of rupees at various locations across India.