The probe against the Gupta brothers in India has picked up pace. The brothers have time until March 26 to appear before the tax authorities.
This comes after their residences in India were raided by tax officials in February.
The brothers have already missed one summons, and earlier this week sent in their Chartered Accountant to meet tax officials instead.
The Gupta CA asked for a month allowance – without explaining why the brothers couldn’t appear before tax authorities right away. Instead they have about a week to make an appearance.
The charges that are being probed include alleged money laundering and fraudulently amassing properties in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and the Delhi capital region.
The four day long raid at Gupta residences has led to various documents being seized- something that SABC News was first to reported on. These documents have reportedly revealed transactions worth millions of dollars and the brothers have been summoned to explain these transactions.
Investigators allegedly found around 300 blank but signed cheques of private banks in Dehradun and Saharanpur from Gupta properties.
It has been reported by local media that these documents have revealed how the Guptas have more than 120 properties across India, although locals say the real number is much higher.
Officials also claim they have ‘attached’ about 31 properties of the Guptas across India. This implies these properties are being looked at as suspect. This is the norm in the course of an income tax investigation.
IT officials have also sought the help of Bank of Baroda as well as the Bank of India to find out which properties were used by the brothers to get millions of dollars of loans sanctioned.
Meanwhile, orders have been given to withdraw the personal security of the Guptas in India.
They enjoyed Z category security the last time they were in India, the same time that Jacob Zuma was ousted. Z category security is the highest level of security that an individual can get from the state in India.
