New Delhi, Aug 28 (IANS): The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operation on August 25 on a Visakhapatnam-based diversified business group at 17 different premises across Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and West Bengal.

The group entities are engaged in extraction of vegetable oils, mining of manganese ore, and manufacturing of ferro alloys.

During the course of the search operation, hand-written diaries/documents, and loose sheets depicting undisclosed cash transactions were seized. The group is inflating expenditure, indulging in cash sales of oil and under invoicing of slag. Transactions in the form of suppression of sales and inflation of expenditure were unearthed.

Unaccounted cash of Rs 3 crore has been seized so far. In total, the searches have resulted in detecting incriminating evidence relating to undisclosed financial transactions of about Rs 40 crore.

Further investigations are in progress.