Mumbai: The income tax (I-T) department carried out raids at the premises of jewellery shops in the city on the suspicion that demonetised notes with a face value of Rs 100 crore was kept there. According to I-T sources, the department raided four jewellery shops in Zaveri Bazaar and found demonetised currency notes there with a face value that might be as high as Rs 500 crore.
The sources added that the I-T department's searches were conducted on jewellery shops located in Zaveri Bazaar's Mumba Devi Road and the 'Old Satta bazaar' in Kalbadevi in South Mumbai. According to the IT sources, the owners of these shops had deposited a lot of old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in their bank accounts. The sources added that these shop owners allegedly received cheques from their workers in order to save themselves from I-T scrutiny due to their huge transactions and depositing large amounts of money.
The jewellers, however, claimed that they only sell gold, but failed in giving the details of the gold they had sold or money they had received for the gold. The jewellers also failed to give details of the money they have in their possession, informed an IT source. The raids started on Friday morning, the sources said, and the I-T department has recovered black money worth Rs 100 crore. Officials suspect that the figure can touch the mark of Rs 500 crore.
