New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS): The Income Tax (I-T) Department has said that it had carried out a search operation on the premises of a Jhansi-based business group, engaged in civil contract and real estate development.

The search operation launched on August 3 covered around 30 premises in Jhansi, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Goa.

An I-T official said that the search operation has resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash and jewellery exceeding Rs 15 crore.

During the course of the search operation, several incriminating evidences have been found and seized, including documentary evidence of several immovable properties of various third parties.

According to the I-T Department, the preliminary analysis of evidence in the business of civil contract has revealed that the business group was engaged in large-scale tax evasion by suppression of its profits through manipulating the regular books of account at the end of every year.

These manipulations were in the nature of claim of bogus expenses and sundry creditors, etc.

These sundry creditors were found to be non-existent and unverifiable. The claim of bogus expenses and sundry creditors exceeding Rs 250 crore has been quantified from the seized evidences. The key person covered during the search has also voluntarily offered additional income exceeding Rs 150 crore, out of the above, it said.

Another modus operandi adopted by the companies engaged in real estate, included receipt of on-money over and above the stamp duty value resulting in tax evasion. These companies were not offering income to tax as per accounting standards, even when substantial construction work had been completed, said I-T Department on Friday.

The investigation from evidences collected during the search has revealed the quantum of unaccounted receipts aggregating to more than Rs 150 crore, the I-T Department added.