Searches unravel hidden cloud servers, encrypted data; Rs 400

Searches in the premises of a prominent Chennai based business group has unraveled the presence of hidden cloud servers and unaccounted income exceeding Rs 400 crore, the Income Tax department said here on Saturday The diversified group, said to have reported a turnover of more than Rs 1,000 crore, deals in non-ferrous metal processing in lead, copper, and aluminum and has business interests in other segments as well like plastic manufacture and financing.

"The highlight of the search is the discovery of hidden cloud servers other than the servers regularly used by the group for accounting, containing unaccounted transaction details, often referred by the group as kaccha accounts," the Income Tax department said in a release Similarly, large amounts of encrypted data was retrieved from a pen drive which was tracked and obtained from the premises of a third party.

The pen drive and the database was decrypted to gather information about the unaccounted capital accumulated by the group, the department said Evidence was also gathered for the introduction of unaccounted funds as bogus share premium in one of the group companies.

A large number of property documents, promissory notes and post-dated cheques taken as collateral security in money lending business were recovered during the search and have been seized "As per evidence detected during the search, the search action resulted in cash seizure of Rs one crore and detection of unaccounted income exceeding Rs 400 crore.

The investigations are still ongoing and the department is in the process of finalizing the proceedings," the department said.

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