Do you know about India's Longest IT Raid?
It is very common for the affluent to sweat when they hear about Income Tax raids. Because, the Income Tax Department raids the houses of many rich people in the country from time to time and recover a lot of cash and valuables. Do you know which is the biggest income tax raid in the country so far and how much money was recovered? On august 21, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman felicitated an Income Tax department team that conducted the longest IT raid in the country. Last year, the highest amount of cash worth Rs 352 crore was seized in a raid against the Distillery Group in Odisha.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, director General of Income Tax Intelligence S.K.J and director General of Income Tax Intelligence Gurpreet singh were present at the event organised to mark 165 years of income tax service in India. Income Tax Committee, headed by Additional director Gurpreet Singh, were honoured with the 'CBDT Certificate of Merit'. Gurpreet Singh is a 2010 batch indian Revenue service (IRS) officer. The team led by him had on december 6 last year conducted raids on several premises of the Odisha-based distillery group on an 'operational intelligence' basis.
At that time, we had to order 3 dozen currency counting machines just to count the trapped money. The raids by the Income Tax Department continued for 10 days. During this period, a total of Rs 351.8 crore cash was recovered. It is said to be the 'largest seizure in a single operation by an agency' in the country. During the raids, the IT department installed a machine with a scanning wheel on the ground to examine the valuables buried underneath.In addition, it counted large sums of money with the help of various banks and their employees. This has been hailed as the largest and longest ever Income Tax raid in India.