New Delhi/Srinagar, August 16, 2017 10:05 IST
Updated: August 16, 2017 21:06 IST
http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...-in-kashmir/article19501219.ece?homepage=true
Sweep covers separatists, hawala operators suspected in ‘terror funding’ case
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday raided multiple locations in Srinagar, Baramulla and Kupwara in connection with the ongoing probe into the alleged ‘terror funding’ to create ‘unrest’ in the Kashmir Valley.
“The NIA conducted searches at 12 locations belonging to separatists and hawala operators in Kashmir Valley in connection with the Kashmir terror funding case. The locations are spread over Srinagar, Handwara, Kupwara and Pulwama,” an NIA spokesperson said.
An official in Srinagar said the driver, Ghulam Nabi, and three houses of the relatives of businessman Zahoor Watali, brother of former inspector general of police Ali Muhammad Watali, were raided in Srinagar and different localities of Tangmarg, Baramulla.
Watali’s Srinagar house was first raided by the NIA on June 3 and he was questioned in the money laundering case.
“A house belonging to Shafi Reshi, advocate and premises related to Zahoor Watali were searched by the NIA teams and a lot of incriminating material, suspect financial records and property-related documents and electronic devices including mobile phones, pen drives and hard drives have been seized during the searches. Some of the documents seized relate to receipt of money from suspect foreign sources and distribution of money so received to certain persons in Kashmir valley,” said the NIA spokesperson.
He said searches are continuing and the suspects are being questioned about the incriminating recoveries made from them.
Mr. Reshi is uncle of ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLC Yasir Reshi. The NIA officials searched the house for several hours.
Most lawyers in Srinagar courts boycotted work to protest against the NIA raids on Mr. Reshi, who is considered close to Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Geelani.
In Kupwara, the NIA sleuths raided the house of a student in Machipora of Handwara. The student is pursuing MBBS from Pakistan.
Two other residences of local businessmen in Handwara’s Bakhiaker area were also raided.
One accountant of a private plywood company was also questioned.
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http://www.thehindu.com/business/Ec...shell-firms/article19502714.ece?homepage=true
Nearly 200,000 shell companies shut, more targeted; hundreds of shell firms located in Kolkata; database being assembled to nail down beneficiaries.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned high-denomination currency bills in a surprise move on November 8, 2016, authorities noticed a surge in shell companies depositing cash in banks, seemingly in a bid to hide who owned that wealth.
The moment, said a top aide to Mr. Modi, was an eye-opener for the government, which had not realised just how much shell companies were being used to hide assets and launder money.
Mr. Modi’s office has formed a team of top law enforcement and revenue officials to go after such companies, according to the aide and a government memo reviewed by Reuters.
In July 2017, the authorities ordered nearly 200,000 shell companies to be shut down, and the aide said the government is examining hundreds of thousands more.
The systematic crackdown on shell companies — which have no active business operations or assets — is perhaps one of the most tangible outcomes of demonetisation, which aimed to hit tax evasion and move India toward cashless, digital transactions that leave a paper trail.
“We are very much at war against black money. The impact of this (crackdown) will be huge on shell companies,” the aide, who cannot be named in line with government rules, told Reuters.
In his Independence Day address on August 15, 2017, Mr. Modi claimed credit for going after these companies, and warned that “looters of the nation’s wealth will have to answer”.
While the move to withdraw 85% of bank notes shook the economy and was widely criticised, the fight against unaccounted wealth carries overwhelming support from ordinary Indians who often have to pay bribes for government services.
Lalbazar Street, Kolkata
Shops and houses are pictured inside the Mercantile office building at 9/12, Lalbazar Street in Kolkata on August 14, 2017. | Photo Credit: REUTERS
A high-level task force leading the investigation has found hundreds of shell companies are registered in a few buildings in the eastern city of Kolkata, according to the government note reviewed by Reuters.
More than 400 companies listed their address in a dimly-lit colonial-era building at 9/12 Lalbazar Street.
In its warren of offices were firms offering services such as earthmoving equipment, infrastructure financing, information technology consultants and many others which had office space the size of cubicles.
Many were locked, with their padlocks coated in dust. Others were grimy residential quarters with laundry hanging from the windows.
Data separately provided by Tofler, a company information database service, identified nearly 3,000 companies in two offices in the building. Some were named after flowers.
A tax inspector said the Kolkata firms were a virtual money laundering industry and drew a parallel to the Panama legal firm Mossack Fonseca that emerged from obscurity last year after the leak of millions of documents from its offices that illustrated how the wealthy use offshore corporations to avoid taxes.
“The Kolkata industry does the work of obfuscating money trails. Kolkata companies are a huge network that take your money from one end and bring it out the other,” said the inspector, who didn’t want to be identified as he’s not authorised to talk to the media.
Fraud and embezzlement
A man goes down the stairs inside the Mercantile office building at 9/12, Lalbazar Street, in Kolkata on August 14, 2017. | Photo Credit: REUTERS
The shell companies support much of the fraud and embezzlement in India, tax authorities say.
The owners of these companies create elaborate smokescreens, including naming personal servants and chauffeurs as board directors, the tax inspector said, adding they are used to obscure the ultimate beneficiaries, conceal political investment, route money to evade tax, commit fraud or manipulate tenders.
Last week, the Securities Exchange Board of India imposed trading restrictions on 162 listed entities as shell companies as part of its broader crackdown on illegal offshore transfers and tax evasion.
Several firms identified in the list of front companies have challenged the decision, saying they were engaged in legitimate business.
The Serious Fraud Investigation Office is creating a database of shell companies, and has so far identified 114,269 as front firms.
The database contains details of those involved in the shell company ‘ecosystem’, from those who set up the companies to the beneficiaries of laundered money and the professional mediators who bring the operators and beneficiaries together, the government note said.
More than 370 front companies were listed at 23A Netaji Subhash Road, another site in Kolkata, according to the note.
Sujit Kumar Mukherjee, the secretary of the 23A Tenants Association, said he was not in a position to say if there were front firms operating from the building. “It is very difficult to say who is doing what behind the front door,” he said.
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New Delhi, August 16, 2017 21:31 IST
Updated: August 16, 2017 21:32 IST
http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...got-figures-asks-congress/article19503992.ece
PM had cited demonetisation amount during his Independence Day speech.
The Congress on Wednesday questioned the figures cited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech on the money that came in post-demonetisation.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad expressed surprise that Mr. Modi was able to quote the cash amount even though the Reserve Bank of India had said it had not yet finished counting the money.
“The PM said ₹3 lakh crore came back to the banking system post-demonetisation. The RBI has not finished counting yet, how did the PM get this figure?” he asked.
Black money
On Tuesday, Mr. Modi had addressed the nation, praising the note ban decision taken by his government to crack down on black money and corruption. He had said, “According to research conducted by outside experts, about ₹3 lakh crore that had never come into the banking system before, has been brought into the system after demonetisation.” Yet, oddly, Mr Azad said, the RBI is yet to announce how much money flowed into the banks post-demonetisation announced on November 9, 2016 as it is still in the process of counting.
Lashing out at the Prime Minister on his message of uniting India, Mr. Azad said that he would be better served if he told the RSS not to break India: India is already united, he stressed.
“
PM keh rahe hain Bharat jodo, par Bharat pehle se hi juda hua hai, PM ko sangh ke logon se kehna chahiye ke Bharat mat todo. [The PM is saying that India needs to unite, when it is already united, PM should tell the people from Sangh that do not break India],” he said.
Referring to the deaths of more than 60 children at Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur, located in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Azad expressed surprise that the Prime Minister had, in his speech, included it as a natural calamity whereas it was a man-made calamity.
Stressing that the truth would never come out if the investigations take place under Prime Minister Modi’s supervision, he demanded that a sitting judge of the Supreme Court should be appointed to head the inquiry.
CM’s address
Mr. Azad also said that Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar’s Independence Day address was not broadcast on Doordarshan and All India Radio as his speech did not include the achievements of the Modi government, adding that an undeclared emergency had been imposed on radio, television and newspapers.
