Bhubaneswar: The revenue tax division has connected 10 excessive worth flats in Bhubaneswar and 11.2 acres of land in Cuttack district of a Delhi-based man from Odisha who had allegedly acquired it by benami holdings funded by unlawful mining of minor minerals.
Odisha has emerged as the biggest supply of minor minerals in India with over 2000 sources for granite, sand, ballast, morrum and laterite. (Representational picture)
Revenue tax officers stated they’ve connected 10 excessive worth flats in Kalinganagar space of Bhubaneswar and 11.2 acres of land at Athagarh in Cuttack district belonging to at least one Tapas Ranjan Panda. After detailed enquiry, the benami properties had been provisionally connected by the Benami Prohibition Unit of IT division in Bhubaneswar, officers stated.
The properties had been initially acquired within the names of two benami entities – Truism Infratech Pvt Ltd and True Help Basis which had been managed and managed by Panda by his kinfolk and workers.
“The inquiry found that Panda did illegal and unauthorised stone mining at Dankari hill at Chadheidhara under Dharmashala tahsil of Jajpur district. The state government did not allot any mining license for stone quarry for the same from 2014 onwards. However, during the course of a search conducted by IT department in June 2022, it was found that ₹200 crores of stone and stone aggregates were sold by Panda to several people,” stated a senior IT official.
“It has now been established that the sale consideration was channelised to his benami companies/firms and from the same unaccounted money land at Bhadrak, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and houses in various apartments located at Bhubaneswar, Gurugram and Ghaziabad. The same benami properties were later re-transferred to his and his wife’s name through layering of transactions,” the official added.
Panda additionally used to file false revenue tax and GST return by bogus billing to legitimise the property acquired within the title of benamidars.
IT officers stated the belongings confiscated beneath Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Modification Act, 2016 may be provisionally connected for 90 days, adopted by adjudication on the nearest adjudication authority. If confirmed benami, it vests with the federal government. The Act aimed to sort out black cash and tax evasion, notably in actual property, has penalty provisions starting from rigorous imprisonment of 1 to 7 years and a high quality as much as 25% of the property’s truthful market worth.
The Act seeks to curb “benami” transactions—monetary preparations the place property is held by one individual, however the consideration (cost) is offered by one other, usually to hide the true proprietor’s id. As soon as the Adjudicating Authority decides the case inside a yr, an individual can method the Appellate Tribunal after which the Excessive Court docket.
As Odisha has emerged as the biggest supply of minor minerals in India with over 2000 sources for granite, sand, ballast, morrum and laterite, the theft has additionally gone up forcing the state authorities to conduct raids.
Final month, 360 folks had been arrested and 524 autos seized throughout a statewide crackdown on unlawful extraction and transportation of minor minerals in a span of 4 days. The state police, which in coordination with the state mines division carried out raids at numerous locations, lodged 456 circumstances towards the sand and stone mafia throughout the state.