Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP) 

Bengaluru, Aug 1: The income tax department, which is in the eye of storm because of offensive launched against it by a few Congress leaders, blaming its officials of exerting pressure on Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder, V G Siddhartha Hegde, based on a letter addressed by the entrepreneur before his demise under suspicious circumstances, has now suggested that a Congress leader was involved with the total financial chaos CCD finds itself in. 

The New Indian Express has claimed in response to allegations of pressure mounted on Siddhartha by top officials of income tax department contained in two letters attributed to him, revealed that Siddhartha's name emerged during investigation connected with raids on a Congress leader. They say that during one of these raids, they found financial bungling in CCD when they investigated documents they recovered during the raid on the Congressman. 

During the raid, the newspaper claims, incriminating documents were found which revealed that the politician concerned had financial dealings with Siddhartha, although these transactions had not been reflected in the accounts submitted by Siddhartha. Sources also revealed that the department got suspicious about murky dealings and went deeper into Siddhartha's financial dealings because of the financial transactions with the said leader which were kept under wraps. The New Indian Express also says that during the raids on the residence of this politician and his close aide during August 2017, its officials came across evidence of secret financial transactions involving CCD and Soul Space. 

The officials revealed that around Rs 20 crore was transferred by CCD to the leader in transactions which were not transparent. During the raids, the officials had found that Rajnish Gopinath, a Singapore citizen, who was involved with the transactions, had Rs 1.2 crore unaccounted cash with him. During the questioning, Rajnish had said that this cash belonged to Siddhartha. The sources also reportedly told the English newspaper that check of the cell phone of Rajnish revealed that he was involved with Hawala transactions. They further revealed that telephonic conversations also supported this notion. 

Rajnish Gopinath happens to be the brother of Muneesh Gopinath, director of finance with CCD. He, the sources in the income tax department revealed to the New Indian Express, was involved with transferring money to different destinations through Hawala,   some of which were on behalf of CCD with close links with the politician. The concerned reportedly admitted to have been involved with these illegal transactions. 

The sources pointed out that Devadarshini Info Tech, a group concern of CCD, reported losses of Rs 15.27 crore and showed Rs 21,62 crore as expenses although this concern, which was instituted with the main purpose of manufacturing computers and computer peripherals, did not have even a single employee on record. The company apparently was involved with fake trading in timber and logs with a CCD group company incorporated in Guyana named Vaitararna Holding private Inc. This was done to illegally transfer funds to a foreign country without any formal agreement. Later, it was said that the logs were damaged at high seas, but no proof was on hand. Although the logs reportedly landed at Tuticorin port, no related record was found there. The logs were sold at a price that was less than half of the cost, without formal agreements. Both Devadarshini Info Tech and holding company of the seller had V G Siddhartha as the largest shareholder, it revealed. 

The income tax officials also stated to the New Indian Express that Arduino Holdings had lent funds to Coffee Day Enterprises, which floated CCD and this is the only company in India to have received funds from Arduino Holdings which has its headquarters in Cyprus. There are allegations that the promoters of CCD also followed evasion techniques in converting CCD equity shares by Coffee Day Enterprises. It was also found by the officials, the New India Express said, that several employees and directors of CCD group of companies were granted loans through a private bank which were diverted to group companies. The loans were given without assessing creditworthiness of the concerned, and on the basis of bogus purchase guarantee letters issued by CCD group, it has been alleged. The bank gave loan amounting to Rs 145 crore to people citing them as farmers.One of the beneficiaries happens to be Nitin Bagmane of Bagmane Developers . Bagmane Developers is located in the CCD square building, the officials have pointed out.