The Income Tax (I-T) Department team in Jaipur on Friday seized cash worth Rs 1.37 crore from two lockers of Ganpati Plaza. The cash was found in the denomination of Rs 500. The I-T officials are still unaware of the ownership of these lockers.
The I-T department team claims that there are more than 300 such lockers which have not been checked yet. If cooperation is not received in the investigation, all the lockers will be cut open, it said.
The I-T team was searching for the owner of these lockers since October 29, but no one came forward claiming them.
The owner of the locker agency was also questioned in this matter, but no satisfactory reply came from the other side.
So on Friday, the I-T department reached the Royra Safety Wallets located at Ganpati Plaza with a cutter. The money was taken out by cutting the lockers.
An I-T official said, “There are many such lockers about which the owner of the locker company is not aware. So we are taking out the money by cutting the lockers. Keeping security and transparency in mind, videography is being done of the entire process.”
It needs to be mentioned here that the I-T officials are continuously investigating the lockers built at Ganpati Plaza.
During the search on October 29, I-T officials found 4.5 kg gold from a locker which was wrapped in a cotton sheet.
Teams were called to the spot to check the gold for its weight and purity. During investigation, the gold was found to be pure. Its current market value is said to be around Rs 2.5 crore.
The investigation into the lockers started after allegations levelled by Rajya Sabha MP Kirori Lal Meena.
I-T officials are busy investigating the Royra Safety Wallets located here. So far, about 763 lockers have been checked, while 337 more are yet to be investigated.
At an election rally in Udaipur on Thursday, PM Narendra Modi had said, “You can see how lockers of corrupt officers in Rajasthan are loaded with gold. Cases are being revealed where a close officer of CM has purchased two-dozen flats in a year.”
The statement has created a furore in the Rajasthan bureaucracy.
