Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Jul 22: Income tax officials unearthed huge amount of illegal wealth and black money stashed away inside the lockers of a club here recently.
The recovery was made from the lockers of the badminton court belonging to the prestigious Bowring Institute Club here. The recovery included Rs 3.9 crore in cash made up of Rs 2000 currency notes, gold ornaments, diamond ornaments and gold biscuits worth Rs 8.20 crore, high value wrist watches, property documents worth over Rs 550 crore, and signed cheques worth hundreds of crores of rupees.
The lockers reportedly belong to Avinash Amarlal, who operates real estate and tyre business in the city. He is said to be one of the top financiers here. It is said that he has been using three lockers of the club without authorization. The documents recovered are learnt to belong to Nitesh Estates and Hong Kong-based Dollars Exchange. The landed property covered by the documents are located at Devanahalli, Begur and surrounding areas, valued at Rs 550 crore.
When the locks of the lockers were broken on July 19, huge amount of illegal wealth and black money was found. Income tax and enforcement directorate officials, based on information received from club officials, raided the spot and have now launched an investigation. The officials also raided Bangalore Club, of which too Avinash is a member, and conducted inspection of contents in his locker there.
It is said that several cheques worth between Rs 15 to 100 crore and signed blank cheques were found from the lockers. The cheque book, leaves of which were found to be signed in blank, belong to a construction firm.
It is said that secretary of the club, Shreekanth, had tipped the income tax and enforcement directorate officials about huge wealth having been hoarded in the lockers. The officials now are trying to find whether this recovery has any relationship with illegal cash and ornaments worth hundreds of crores of rupees recently recovered from Chennai. The investigation will also look into the chances of the illegal wealth having political connection.
Bowring Institute located on St Marks Road, which is over 150 years old, has over 5,100 members. When the officials came to the club at 11.30 am on July 20, its secretary, Shreekanth, said that being a responsible citizen of the country, he had conveyed information to the government in discharge of his duty. He said that he never knew anything about the value of the documents inside the lockers. He stated that he got suspicion when the concerned began to offer him lures and also gave hint about the value of things kept inside in an effort to claim contents of the lockers. He added that the decision to break open the lockers was made with the clear intention of ensuring that only the true owners get the contents of the lockers.