There has been lot of raids conducted by different agencies regarding the loans given out by J&K Bank to some firms. The latest is that Income Tax Department conducted search and seizure operations at various locations related to a prominent business group based in Srinagar. The IT officials covered four premises in the Kashmir Valley and six places in the Jammu region.
Apart from the premises in the state, 10 other locations situated in Ludhiana, NCR and Jammu belonging to parties that have actively assisted the main tax evader in concealing his income and indulging in illegal activities have also been covered under survey action. The group is engaged in the business of real estate and information technology. There were allegations of large scale diversion and misappropriation of loan taken from Jammu and Kashmir Bank by the group.
During the search, it was detected that the tax evader has been given the illegal benefit of Rs 60 crore by J&K Bank, according to the initial information given by the raiding agencies to the media. His outstanding loan of Rs 190 crore was settled at Rs 130 crore, although he did not deserve any concessional treatment, the raiding agencies claimed. Additionally, even the reduced bank liability has either been defaulted by him or the repayment has been facilitated by active connivance of bank officials, who have ever-greened his loan account by lending to third parties, who, in turn, gave their loaned funds to the tax evader through dubious financial transactions with him
IT officials found that the main promoter was a director in a Dubai based company. He is also holding and operating a foreign bank account. Neither his interest in the Dubai Company nor the foreign bank account has ever been disclosed by him in his tax returns. He is likely to face action under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 as well as other relevant laws of the land for deliberate omission to declare foreign investment as mandated by law.