By IANS,
New Delhi : The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has seized cash, jewellery and fixed deposits worth Rs.11.61 crore in raids on the properties of liquor baron Gurpreet Singh Chadha alias Ponty Chadha in Uttar Pradesh earlier this month, the finance ministry said Thursday.
“The CBDT has mentioned that during the search operations held on Feb 1, 2012, with regard to the concerned liquor baron, cash of Rs.2.03 crore, jewellery and ornaments worth the value of Rs.5.18 crore, fixed deposits of Rs.4.4 crore, and large number of documents were seized,” the finance ministry, under which the CBDT functions, said in a statement.
According to the statement, restraint orders on 13 bank lockers and two other premises are pending and that searches are yet to be completed in the case.
The ministry statement came after a section of the media reported that information about the raids was leaked and thereby the main objective of the search operations was negated.
The IT department had raided 17 places belonging to the liquor baron across Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, including his multiplexes in Noida and a sprawling farm house spread over 13 acres in Chattarpur in Delhi.
Some reports had said the CBDT had information that around Rs.100 crore were in one of Chadha’s lockers at the basement of the Centrestage mall in Noida. But when they opened the locker, only Rs.100 could be found.
Chadha is the sole wholesale liquor distributor in Uttar Pradesh and is alleged to be selling liquor bottles above the maximum retail price (MRP).