One of the oldest and richest realtors of Mumbai, whose family once owned large parts of Powai and even donated land for setting up the IIT, is facing Income Tax (I-T ) trouble. I-T sleuths landed up at the residence and offices of Bhawani Shankar Sharma and his family members on Thursday morning and claimed to have unearthed huge amounts of cash, jewellery and documents relating to undisclosed assets.
At the time of going to press, sources said the searches were still on and has uncovered undisclosed assets worth almost Rs 50 crore.Sharma has constructed a shopping complex and several buildings at Powai, and at present is constructing three residential buildings there.
The I-T department claimed to have received a tip-off about a huge amount of undisclosed money stashed away in Sharmas home and offices. It set up six teams of 30 officers each and searched Sharmas Supreme Infrastructure India Limited Companys office in 8, Bhawani Service Industrial Estate at Powai and his residence in Lake Castle building at Powai.
Searches were also carried out in two other offices at Chembur and apartments in various places at Powai. The searches were taking a lot of time because money has allegedly been stashed away in small packets in various corners of the house.
We found Rs 10 lakh in a packet in a drawer in one room and Rs 5 lakh in another room. Also the assessment of undisclosed property and their valuation is taking time, said an officer involved in the search.
Sources said that the family had in the past few days given advertisements in various papers expressing a desire to sell some of their property. However , this could not be confirmed. O P Singh, additional commissioner (I-T ), who was leading the team, said, Raids are on, but I am not the proper authority to talk to mediapersons .
Vicky, Sharmas son, said, All our declarations were clear. We will respond to the query by the income tax department. There was no cash or jewellery seized.
