The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on Wednesday, August 25, against a Visakhapatnam-based diversified business group at 17 different premises across Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and West Bengal. In the search, the IT department detected undisclosed financial transactions of Rs 40 crore against the group which is engaged in extraction of vegetable oils and manufacturing of ferro alloys, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Friday.

"In total, the searches have resulted in detecting incriminating evidence relating to undisclosed financial transactions of about Rs 40 crore," the CBDT said in a statement.

It added that unaccounted cash of Rs 3 crore was also seized during the operation. The CBDT frames policy for the tax department. "Handwritten diaries, documents and loose sheets depicting undisclosed cash transactions were seized. The group is inflating expenditure and indulging in cash sales of oil and under invoicing of slag," it said.

Transactions in the form of suppression of sales and inflation of expenditure were unearthed, IANS reported. Further investigation is underway.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at eight locations of human hair traders and exporters in Andhra Pradesh two day ago.

The searches were carried out in accordance with the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). According to reports, during the ED's money-laundering probe into Chinese online betting applications, it was allegedly found that hawala payments of Rs 16 crore were made to human hair merchants. Following this, the ED launched a FEMA inquiry against hair merchants in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In the investigation, officials found that many domestic merchants were collecting and selling raw hair to overseas merchants based in Hyderabad, Guwahati, and Kolkata.“The hair is then smuggled out of India by road via Moreh [Manipur], Zokhawthar [Mizoram], and Aizawl [Mizoram] to Mandalay [Myanmar]. It eventually makes its way to China, where it is labelled as domestic Chinese hair and processed,” ED officials said.