New Delhi, March 31 : Days after search and seizure on a leading two-wheeler company and related firms in Delhi-NCR, the Income Tax (I-T) department on Thursday claimed that the business group made bogus expenses of about Rs 900 crore. Undisclosed cash exceeding Rs 1.35 crore has been seized and jewellery over Rs 3 crore has been kept under restraint by the tax department. While the I-T department did not name the company, an official source told that the company under scanner is Hero MotoCorp. The company Chairman and CEO Pawan Munjal is also under lens. The tax authorities had visited the office and residence of Munjal during the raid on Hero MotoCorp on March 23. In total, 35 premises had been covered during the operation. “During the course of the search operation, various incriminating documents and digital evidence have been found and seized indicating that the expenses ostensibly shown to have been claimed towards business purposes are not fully supported by evidences. Expenditure aggregating to more than Rs 800 crore has been booked in the guise of purchase of services from a specific event management entity. This entity has siphoned-off the money by way of layering,” the Income Tax department said. “Such claims towards non-business purposes are inadmissible expenditure under the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961,” it further said. In the search, it was also found that 10 acres of farm land at Delhi was purchased through few paper companies. In such transactions, unaccounted cash component of over Rs 60 crore was purportedly involved. “The ultimate/real beneficiary of the land deal is a prominent person of the automobile manufacturer group. The intermediary who facilitated the said deal has admitted in his statement that major part of the sale consideration was paid in cash,” the Tax department said in the statement. The statement said that several incriminating documents have been unearthed from the premises of persons involved in the real estate business. These contain records of on-money transactions where cash was being received in lieu of sale of ts in their various real estate projects across Delhi, claimed the I-T department. “In the case of the company operating chartered flights, evidence related to booking of bogus expenses and non-recognition of income totalling to over Rs 50 crore, rotation of funds and suspicious loans through a dubious NBFC floated by a key person, layering and re-routing of funds through paper companies and claiming bogus interest expenses, etc. have also been unearthed,” the I-T department said. Responding to reports about alleged suppression of income, Hero MotoCorp had on March 29 said that the allegations made in the media reports are not borne out of any document that have been served on them or their internal documents. “Therefore, we categorically deny the speculative press reports,” the company had said. “As and when the tax department concludes its findings and comm cates to us, we will inform the exchanges suitably. Hero MotoCorp is a law-abiding corporate, with robust internal financial controls and its financial statements are duly audited,” Hero MotoCorp had said. NK