Bhopal, Nov 12 (IANS) The Income Tax department has seized cash amounting to crores of rupees besides fixed deposit receipts (FDRs) of about Rs.90 crore from the office of a private mining firm in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni district and the house of its owner here in the past two days, officials said Thursday.
A number of documents were also seized in the raids.

“The money was transferred via money laundering from some bogus companies of Kolkata. The raiding teams have recovered documents related to two bogus companies - Ankit and Nova - from where funds were routed to the firm’s owner P.Mittal,” said an IT official who did not want to be identified.

“There is enough evidence that the money used in making the fixed deposits came through Hawala,” said the official, adding that details of some payouts being made to some bigwigs by Mittal have also been found in the raids.

The group, owned by Mittal, is involved in extraction of minerals, especially bauxite. The raid at the office of the firm also resulted in the recovery of sale invoices worth crores of rupees.

Mittal’s firm was under watch by the IT department for some time and was raided in September also when some documents were seized. Soon after the raids, Mittal had surrendered undisclosed income of Rs.12 crore to the Income Tax authorities.