New Delhi, Oct 7 (UNI) Gathering intelligence for the last six months, the Income Tax (I-T) department has conducted search and seizure operations on a Maharashtra-based syndicate which operated out of Mumbai's Oberoi hotel and other premises.

During the operations, the department has claimed to have detected Rs 1,050 crore in hidden income.

"The syndicate consisting of businessmen, middlemen, associates and persons holding public offices used various code names in their records and in one case had back-dated records by 10 years. The total transactions detected during this search are to the tune of Rs 1,050 crore," the tax department said in a statement.

The search and seizure operations covered 25 residential and 15 office premises and 4 offices.

"Some suites in Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, permanently rented by two of the middlemen and used for meeting their clients, were also subjected to search," the statement said.

The tax department said that middlemen covered under the operations provided end-to-end services to corporates and entrepreneurs from land allotment to obtaining all governmental clearances.

"Despite using encrypted modes of communication and sanitising devices, the Income Tax teams were able to recover critical digital evidence and also located a secret hideout from where various incriminating evidences were recovered. The liaisoners also used 'angadiyas' for transfer of cash and Rs 150 lakh was seized from one of the angadiyas during the search," the statement said.

As per the official statement, some of the persons searched have their own real estate and construction businesses.

"Voluminous digital data has been recovered and seized from mobile phones, pen-drives, hard drives, iCloud, e-mails etc. which is being examined and analyzed. So far, cash of more than Rs 4.6 crore and jewellery valued at Rs 3.42 crore have been seized. Four lockers found during the search operation have been put under restraint orders," the I-T department said.

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