I-T dept raids on Chinese individuals, Indian contacts continue for 2nd day

New Delhi: The Income Tax Department on Wednesday continued its raids against some Chinese individuals and their local associates in connection with its probe into a Rs 1,000 crore worth cross-border money laundering racket using shell or dubious firms, officials said.

The department, official sources said, has seized a number of documents and computer peripherals and has recovered about Rs 60-70 lakh cash from multiple premises in the Delhi-NCR region till now.

The tax sleuths raided at least two dozen premises in Delhi, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad on Tuesday as part of the action under which it covered the Chinese, some of their Indian associates and bank officials, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had said in a statement.

The department is questioning several people and is in the process to freeze a number of bank accounts linked to the accused and some dubious companies floated and operated by them, the sources said.

The department has detained a 42-year-old Chinese man, identified as Charlie Peng, alleged to be the kingpin of the racket and few other nationals of that country on work visa in India are on its radar.

Charlie is allegedly holding a fake Indian passport and officials said he created a "web of sham companies to launder hawala funds to and from China" in the past two-three years.

They said his front or showcase business was import and export of medical and electronic goods and some other items.

Charlie, the sources said, was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in September, 2018 on charges of fraud and forgery and was allegedly running an illegal money changer.

It is alleged that Peng got a fake Indian passport from Manipur after marrying a woman from that state.

The tax officials have shared the information of alleged possession of fake Indian passport with police authorities who are expected to book the Chinese man for violation of the Passport Act.