Income Tax Dept alleges Sonu Sood and his associates evaded Rs 20 cr tax, issues statement

Income Tax Department which conducted several search and seizure operations at various premises related to Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has found 'incriminating evidence' pertaining to tax evasion to tune of Rs 20 crore. As per a release of Ministry of Finance, a total of 28 premises spre over Mumbai, Luckw, Kanpur, Jaipur, Delhi, and Gurgaon were covered in search operation which uneard Sonu Sood's alleged unaccounted income in form of bogus unsecured loans and entities. 

" main modus operandi followed by actor h been to route his unaccounted income in form of bogus unsecured loans from many bogus entities. Investigations so far have revealed use of twenty such entries, providers of which,on examination, have accepted on oath to have given bogus accommodation entries. y have accepted to have issued cheques in lieu of cash," IT Department said in an official relase.

IT Department has revealed that re have been instances where professional receipts have been camoufld as loans in books of accounts for purpose of evasion of tax. It has also revealed that se bogus loans have been used for making investments and acquiring properties. " total amount of tax eved uneard so far, amounts to more than Rs. 20 crore," IT Department stated. 

Donations collected in violation of FCRA: IT Dept

bogus transactions date back to June 2020 when Sonu Sood incorporated a charitable foundation for various relief work. IT Department states that foundation h collected donations to tune of Rs 18.94 crore from 01.04.2021 till date, out of which it h spent around Rs. 1.9 crore towards various relief work. A balance of Rs. 17 crore has been found lying unutilized. Several of se donations have also been collected from foreign entities in violation of FCRA. 

"It is seen that funds to tune of Rs. 2.1 crore have also been raised by Charity Foundation from overseas dors on a crowdfunding platform in violation of FCRA regulations," it said. 

Moreover, a recent joint venture with a real estate project, where Sonu Sood invested substantial funds, which have shown tax evasion and irregularities in books of account. "Evidence of such bogus contracts found so far are to tune of over Rs. 65 crore. Evidence of unaccounted cash expenses, unaccounted sale of scrap and digital data evidencing unaccounted cash transactions has also been found," Income Tax Department said.

Infrastructure Group/company is said to have entered into a dubious circular transaction to tune of Rs. 175 crore with ar company based in Jaipur. A total of 11 lockers have been placed under prohibitory order and 1.8 crores have been seized during course of search.