Sonu Sood, associates evaded Rs 20 crore tax, violated FCRA: Income Tax department

The CBDT on Saturday alleged that actor Sonu Sood and his associates evaded tax of Rs 20 crore and claimed that after the Income Tax Department raided him and a linked Lucknowbased infrastructure group it was found that he routed his unaccounted income in the form of bogus unsecured loans from many bogus entitiesIt also accused Sood of violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act FCRA while raising donations from abroadThe department had launched searches against the 48yearold actor and the Lucknowbased group of industries involved in infrastructure on September 15 and the CBDT said the action was continuingDuring the course of search at the premises of the actor and his associates incriminating evidence pertaining to tax evasion has been foundThe main modus operandi followed by the actor had been to route his unaccounted income in the form of bogus unsecured loans from many bogus entities the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT claimed in a statementAlso read Mumbai IT dept widens probe against actor Sonu Sood searches multiple premisesIt added that so far use of 20 such entries has been found and the providers of which on examination have accepted on oath to have given bogus accommodation entries transaction entries in accountsThey have accepted to have issued cheques in lieu of cash There have been instances where professional receipts have been camouflaged as loans in the books of accounts for the purpose of evasion of tax the policymaking body for the tax department saidThese bogus loans it said have been used for making investments and acquiring propertiesThe total amount of tax evaded unearthed so far amounts to more than Rs 20 crore the statement and official sources said about SoodIt also talked about his charity organisation that was established during the Covid19 outbreak last yearThe charity foundation incorporated by the actor on July 21 2020 has collected donations to the tune of Rs 1894 crore from April 1 2021 till date out of which it has spent around Rs 19 crore towards various relief work and the balance of Rs 17 crore has been found lying unutilised in the bank account of the foundation till date it saidIt is seen the statement alleged that funds to the tune of Rs 21 crore have also been raised by the charity foundation from overseas donors on a crowdfunding platform in violation of FCRA regulationsIt said the actor had entered into a joint venture with the Lucknow located infrastructure group and invested substantial funds and said the taxman has unearthed incriminating evidence pertaining to tax evasion and irregularities in the account booksThe search has revealed that the said group is involved in bogus billing of subcontracting expenses and siphoning off of fundsEvidence of such bogus contracts found so far are to the tune of over Rs 65 crore it saidEvidence of unaccounted cash expenses unaccounted sale of scrap and digital data evidencing unaccounted cash transactions has also been foundThe infra group has entered into dubious circular transaction to the tune of Rs 175 crore with an infrastructure company based in JaipurFurther investigations are being carried out to establish the full extent of tax evasion it saidThe CBDT said Rs 18 crore cash has been seized during the raids and 11 lockers have been placed under prohibitory ordersA total of 28 premises in Mumbai Lucknow Kanpur Jaipur Delhi and Gurgaon are being covered as part of the search operationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever