The Income Tax (I-T) Department on August 11 said it conducted search operations at various Chinese entities. The search was mounted following information that a few Chinese individuals and their Indian associates were involved in money laundering and hawala transactions through a series of shell companies, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a release.
It said some bank officials had also been raided.
The tax department added that more than 40 bank accounts, with credits of over than Rs 1,000 crore, were created in various dummy entities at the behest of some Chinese individuals.
The raids also revealed that a subsidiary of a Chinese company and its related entities have taken over Rs 100 crore in bogus advances from shell entities to open retail showrooms in India.
The CBDT said, "Further, incriminating documents in respect of hawala transactions and laundering of money with active involvement of bank employees and chartered accountants has been found as a result of search action. Evidences of foreign hawala transactions involving Hong Kong and US dollars have also been unearthed."
This comes at a time when anti-China sentiment in the country is running high. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on August 6 confirmed that Chinese handset major Vivo will not be associated with the Indian Premier League as its title sponsor for this year's edition, an announcement that came amid growing calls for the boycott of Chinese companies in India.
Earlier, the Centre also banned 59 Chinese apps in India, besides imposing 100 percent physical checks on all imports from its northern neighbour, and increasing scrutiny of Chinese investments in Indian firms by restricting foreign direct investment (FDI) from neighbouring countries without government approval.
All this, after the two countries' troops clashed at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh in June, in which 20 Indian soldiers were martyred.
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