The Income Tax department sleuths continued their search operation to dig out unaccounted wealth of Surat based tea and bhajiya vendor as till now they could trace out Rs 650 crore belonging to Kishor Bhajiawala.
According to a senior I-T official they could dig out information on properties in name of tea vendor turned financier, his family members and associates worth more than Rs 650 crores.
“Over 300 kilogram of silver, Rs 1.39 crore worth of diamonds, over Rs 6.5 crore in cash in new and old currencies and 15 kilograms of gold has been found across multiple lockers belonging to Bhajiawala and his associates. We are expecting to unearth more unaccounted money held by Kishore and his family members in the coming days, said the officials.
The I-T officials had run into Kishore’s treasure when he apparently deposited over a crore into his account post demonetisation. The department began detailed probe in to his bank accounts, lockers and other property since last week. He and his family members were found to be having more than 40 bank accounts.
The controversial tea and snacks vendor, who ran a stall in Udhana on the suburbs of Surat city in south Gujarat for over three decades, had turned in to a financier for over a decade.
Sources in the I-T department said that officials raided one of Bhajiawala’s properties and found an iron locker there which was opened in the presence of his son Jignesh. They found silver utensils weighing 125 kg, share certificates indicating investments worth crores of rupees in stock market and other documents related to properties in Surat area in different names.
Sources further said that over the past one week, I-T sleuths seized documents related to 350 properties.
Now they would personally visit those properties which were not given on rent and remained closed, said a source, adding that intense interrogation of Bhajiawala and his associates are going on.