A day after seizing over Rs 13 crore from South Delhi law firm, officials hint at further raids

A day after Crime Branch officials – in coordination with the Income Tax department – raided a law firm in South Delhi’s Greater Kailash-I and found over Rs 13 crore in cash, of which Rs 2.5 crore was in new currency notes, officials have hinted at more raids in the coming days across various locations in Delhi.

While the responsibility of the investigation will lie with the IT department, the Crime Branch will undertake raids across the city in coordination with the agency.

According to the police, the law firm T&T Law was raided around 10.30 pm on Saturday. In the raid, police recovered cash worth Rs 13.56 crore stashed in cupboards and suitcases.

The police were trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the founder and managing partner of the firm, Rohit Tandon. Their eventually succeeded on Sunday evening, as Tandon was traced to his house in Greater Kailash-I, where the IT officials had started to question him about the case.

“We cannot disclose much as it may jeopardise the investigation,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), Sanjay Sehrawat.

So far, the police have recovered Rs 7 crore in Rs 1,000, Rs 3 crore in Rs 100 and the remaining in Rs 50 and Rs 500 denominations. “So far, we have managed to only find the caretaker who was present when we raided the premises. We also recovered two currency counting machines. Further investigation will be undertaken by the IT Department,” Sehrawat added.

This is not the first time that Tandon’s name has cropped up as around two months ago the tax department had searched his premises and had found documents related to Rs 19 crore in unaccounted money, which had been kept as fixed deposit in a bank.

Tandon came into the limelight after he was found to have purchased a bungalow in Jor Bagh, nearly two years ago, from the Ruia family – promoters of the Essar group – for around Rs 100 crore. The bungalow has a built-up space of 12,000 sq ft on a 1,250 sq yard plot.

Moreover, after a raid on his residence and office on October 6 by the IT department, Tandon had declared Rs 125 crore in unaccounted income.

The police are now trying to ascertain as to how the firm managed to get around Rs 2 crore in new currency notes and have hinted that the trail may stretch to Mumbai. “We have reason to believe the firm may have had several connections in Mumbai. We are probing these links to find out more on the dealings of the firm,” the officer added.

This is not the first time that such currency raids have been conducted post demonetisation. On December 5, officials of the Enforcement Directorate arrested two Axis Bank managers in New Delhi as part of its investigation into a racket of illegal conversion of currency notes.

The same month, Income Tax officials seized nearly Rs 28 lakh, half of it in new currency notes, from two men travelling in a taxi in Ghaziabad. New Rs 2,000 currency notes worth Rs 10 lakh were seized from Islampur village on Sohna Road in Gurugram.

Around 44 fake accounts were unearthed during a raid at Axis Bank branch in Chandni Chowk. Last month, the Delhi Police had caught two people with Rs 3.5 crore in new currency as they were coming out of the Kashmere Gate branch of the bank.