Income Tax sleuths who searched the house of a financier at Chellakere in Chitradurga were shocked by the scale of what they found — a secret chamber covered with wall tiles in one of the bathrooms, which, when opened, revealed a cache of new currency.
I-T officials searched three houses of Veerendra, also a businessman and allegedly involved in cricket betting, in the town. I-T officials did not find much in the three houses at first, but a more through search revealed the secret chamber. Veerendra is the son-in-law of a senior Kannada actor.
The sleuths recovered a total of Rs. 5.7 crore in Rs. 2,000 notes during the searches on Saturday in Hubballi and Chitradurga, which makes it another major haul of new currency in the State following the recent seizure in Bengaluru. The sleuths also recovered Rs. 90 lakh in old currency, 28 kg of bullion and 4 kg of gold jewellery.
The I-T Department targeted a clique of hawala and casino operators, and bullion traders who are also said to be deeply entrenched in cricket betting.
One of the hawala operators was also actively involved in converting old notes and was accumulating bullion using old demonetised currency, a statement from I-T Department said.
Searches were conducted at 15 locations in the State, with another jeweller and an alleged hawala operator Sumandhar Singh, being the target of search and seizure operations in Hubballi.
The operations in the State is a continuation of the searches in Goa targeting a clique of hawala operators, during which sleuths picked up leads on those doing business with them, leading to search and seizure operations in the State.
