The Income Tax department officials recently seized large sums of unaccounted cash amounting to crores from the lockers belonging to employees of the Lodha Group, a prominent player in the real estate sector. This operation took place about five months after the department had requested the company to pay Rs 60 crore in taxes. Back in January, the Income Tax department executed raids on approximately 20 locations associated with the Lodha Group, prompted by allegations of misreported income and financial discrepancies. The unexpected visit by the IT officials was based on a tip-off that indicated suspicious overstatement of expenses, which reportedly involved the use of fake receipts and cash transactions with clients. Notably, this operation had witness the presence of Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the Chairman of the company, along with his two sons who are directors within the organization.
As the investigation continued, IT officials discovered references to various bank lockers registered under the employees' names during their review of the documents found at the premises. When they subsequently accessed these lockers—26 in total—they unearthed unreported cash amounting to crores. Specifically, during the initial raid, unaccounted funds totalling Rs 6.5 crores were retrieved from one employee's locker in Kalbadevi. Along with this, Rs 1.5 crore were also recovered from the offices and residential properties associated with the company's owners. Furthermore, officials confiscated over ten note counting machines from the premises of the group. According to the IT officials, the entire operation had been orchestrated by the company in an attempt to evade tax liabilities. As a result, the Income Tax department has now frozen the company's annual income at Rs 200 crore and has demanded the Lodha Group remit Rs 60 crore in owed taxes.