I-T raids on Jarkiholi, Hebbalkar reveal web of undisclosed transactions

The raids by the Income Tax Department on Minister for Small Scale Industries Ramesh L. Jarkiholi and president of Karnataka State Mahila Congress and Belagavi District Congress Committee president Lakshmi Hebbalkar has revealed a web of undisclosed transactions conducted in cooperative banks.

The probe revealed non-existent persons being made shareholders and investors in one of the sugar companies. Evidences of creation of bogus assets and siphoning off money from the company through various concerns engaged in turnkey projects for setting up of sugar factories have also been gathered, a release said.

Huge cash deposits

Examination of various entry providers, immediate bank enquiries and surveys carried out at cooperative societies confirmed that huge unexplained cash deposits have been made in the bank accounts of family members and associates. Benami names have been used in primary cooperative societies, which were later transferred to business entities carrying out sugar manufacturing, the release said.

Mr. Jarkiholi belongs to the politically powerful Jarkiholi family with business interest in liquor and sugar industries in Belagavi district.

“Gathered Intelligence revealed that both the groups followed almost similar

modus operandi for tax evasion, and common entry providers/facilitators were involved,” it said, adding that search led to evidence of systematic and organised tax evasion by both the groups.

According to sources in the I-T department, the searches were conducted after credible information on the finances of the yet to be commissioned sugar factory in Belagavi, belonging to Ms. Hebbalkar’s family came through following complaints of money laundering. Suspicious entries in several accounts in a cooperative bank from where huge loans had been raised, led to further probe, resulting in unearthing of ₹162 crore undisclosed income.

‘Modus operandi similar’

The I-T sleuths have been searching various district cooperative banks in the State, many of which are operated by political families, for undisclosed high value transactions over the last few years. “ Modus operandi in many cooperative banks have been quite similar,” an official familiar to the operation said.

FIR against Hebbalkar’s brother

The Belagavi city police have registered an FIR against Lakshmi Hebbalkar’s brother Channaraj Hattiholi for allegedly threatening and assaulting the family members of Sanath Kumar under suspicion that he was the informer for the I-T operations.

Mr. Kumar, in his complaint, alleged that Mr. Channaraj and two of his associates barged into his house in his absence wielding lethal weapons and threatened to kill him and assaulted his family members.

In its statement, the I-T department has clarified that the search operations were conducted based on the “investigative process of the Investigation Wing of the Income Tax Department out of its own Intelligence sources” and no informer was involved.

The department has also said that the search had invited the wrath of the followers of the two leaders in Gokak and Belagavi. At one of the premises where search was conducted, attempts were made to create law and order situation and the mob could be dispersed only after convincing them that the raid was apolitical, the release said.