Gujarat tea vendor worth over Rs 250 crore!

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, December 16

One may consider him to be a poor tea and ‘bhajiya’ (‘pakora’ snacks) vendor, but Kishore Bhajiyawala of Udhna in outskirts of Surat in south Gujarat has turned out to be holding more than Rs1.08 crore in cash, Rs2.5 crore in diamond and gold jewellery, Rs75 lakh in silver bars and land property valued at Rs250 crore.

It took nearly three days for the Income Tax department officials to carry out the search operations at Kishore’s residential and business premises before they could complete the indent on the “poor” tea and snack vendor who came to the notice of the IT department after he deposited over Rs 1 crore in one of his bank accounts following the demonetisation of the high-value currency notes.

The IT department found cash and documents that indicated that he had more than Rs 1.08 crore in cash in the new currency notes of Rs 2,000, Rs 23 lakh in the defunct currency of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, Rs 5 lakh in Rs 5, 10 and 20 notes, besides the jewellery stacked in eight different bank lockers.

Officials initiated probe in three banks in which Kishore and his family was found to have 29 accounts. On searching his bank locker in a co-operative bank, officials recovered Kisan Vikas Patra worth Rs 4.50 lakh and documents related to more than 200 properties in south Gujarat, together valued at over Rs 250 crore.

What taxman found

Rs 1.08 cr in new currency 
Rs 2.5 cr in jewellery
Rs 75 lakh in silver bars 
Rs 250-cr worth property