The Income Tax (I-T) department said it is investigating the sale of land between Maharashtra state minister Anil Parab and a Mumbai-based cable operator, Sadanand Kadam, in 2017.
The tax department had on March 8 searched 26 premises linked to Kadam and the deputy regional transport officer (RTO) Bajrang Kharmate in Mumbai, Pune, Ratnagiri and Sangli. Kharmate is known to be close to Parab.
The tax authority in a statement said it has found that Parab bought a piece of land in Dapoli in 2017 but the land was registered only in 2019. This land was developed as a resort between 2017-2020 and then sold to Kadam in 2020 for merely Rs 1.19 crore even as Rs 6 crore was spent on the construction of the resort.
The tax agency said the cost of construction of the resort has “not been accounted for” either by Kadam or Parab in their books of account.
“It transpires that the relevant facts about the construction of the resort were not intimated to the registration authorities and accordingly, the stamp duty was paid only for the registration of the land on both the occasions i.e. in 2019 and in 2020,” said the CBDT statement.
According to the tax agency, Kharmate, the deputy RTO and his family, have “amassed huge wealth” and invested in properties at Pune, Sangli and Baramati, in the last 10 years.
“The family owns one bungalow and one farm house in Pune, one lavish farm house in Tasgaon, two bungalows in Sangli, two commercial complexes having Tanishq and Carat lane showrooms, five flats in different locations of Pune, one flat in Navi Mumbai, vacant plots in Sangli, Baramati, Pune and more than 100 acres of agricultural land acquired during the past seven years,” said the tax department.
The I-T department is examining the sources of funds used for acquiring these properties and the money spent on the “lavish” interiors of shops and bungalows.
The agency has found that a construction business run by a relative of Kharmate has received several state government contracts.
“Search operation has also unearthed evidences of inflation of contract expenses through bogus purchase and bogus sub-contracts aggregating to Rs. 27 crore. Evidence regarding unaccounted cash receipt of Rs 2 crore in sale of land at Baramati has also been detected,” said the I-T department.
The tax authority has so far seized Rs 66 lakh during its searches on Kadam and Kharmate.
Kharmate was earlier searched and questioned by the ED in connection with the allegations by dismissed police officer Sachin Waze. Waze, in his statement, had alleged that Parab received crores of rupees as bribe from Kharmate for transfers of 10 police officers in Mumbai last year.
The agency had also recorded statements of witnesses in its case against Kharmate and Parab.
