IT raids on hospitals reveals unaccounted income of Rs 150 cr, jewellery seized
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Aug, 2022 05:02 PM
New Delhi, Aug 3 (IANS) The Income Tax Department on Wednesday said it recently carried out search and seizure operations on several groups engaged in healthcare services by running hospitals.
A total of 44 premises were covered during the search action in Delhi-NCR.
"The search operation has led to the seizure of unexplained cash of over Rs 3.50 crore and jewellery valued at Rs 10 crore. So far, the unaccounted income of all the groups detected in these operations is estimated to be more than Rs 150 crore. More than 30 bank lockers have been put under restraint," an official said.
He said that during the course of the search operation, huge incriminating physical and digital evidence has been seized.
"The analysis of evidence revealed that one of the groups was maintaining a parallel set of books of account, indicating systematic under-reporting of receipts received from patients in cash. The modus operandi adopted by this group included removal of invoices or deflation of the invoice amount by marking them as "Discounts/Concessions" etc, at the time of discharge of patients from the hospital," the official said.
The IT department said that this practice, resulting in evasion of income, was being followed across all the hospitals of the group.
The other healthcare groups covered in the search operation have been found to be engaged in obtaining either bogus or inflated invoices for pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices such as stents, leading not only to suppression of actual profits, but also overcharging from the patients.
The money trail found during the investigations has further corroborated the fact that the groups have been receiving back cash in lieu of payments made through banking channels for these inflated invoices.
One of the hospitals of these groups was also found to be claiming wrong deduction over the years without fulfilling the necessary conditions for the hospital to be eligible as specified business.
The seized evidence has also revealed the practice of referral payment to doctors and clinics without duly recording these in the books of account. The referral payment has been fixed at a percentage of invoices raised to the patients. Evidence pertaining to benami transactions have also been uncovered.
The compliance of the action taken by the operator is verified during the next audit and surveillance. In case of any violations or non-compliance to regulations detected during audit and surveillance, enforcement action including financial penalty is imposed by the DGCA.
Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram said his party is protesting the ED summons to Sonia Gandhi. "The AJL-Young India transaction is recorded in the books of account, the returns filed by the two companies and in the Income Tax returns. All that the ED wants to know can be found in the records," he said.
During a meeting with Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav and other officers, who called on him at his official residence here, Mann said that gangsters and drug peddlers were patronised by the previous governments.
The accused were identified as Neelam (35), Sunita (35), Neeta (34) and Savitri (34). DCP (Dwarka) M. Harsh Wardhan said the staff of Anti-Narcotics Cell received a secret information that some women sell drugs at Indira market near Anaj Mandi, Najafgarh.
According to the official, the main accused, Abhishek Chhabra was running the fake call-centre for the last one month. The victims of the scam are mainly the people residing in the foreign countries.
13 people have been arrested in the case so far after the first arrest was made on May 30, a day after the murder of Moosewala. Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, who is a member of the Bishnoi gang, had claimed responsibility for Moosewala's murder.
