A Rs 15 crore deposit in the bank account of Lal Babu Singh’s driver alerted income tax authorities, leading to raids on the Dhanbad-based contractor whose cash deposits, according to initial estimates, could touch a whopping Rs 100 crore.

A team of tax officials belonging to Ranchi, Patna, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur continued with search and seizure operations for the second day on thursday and scoured through several bank accounts that were allegedly opened by Singh, whose sudden surge in wealth has stunned residents and businessmen of the coal capital.

The IT department, which claims it has sealed more than 10 bank accounts belonging to Singh and his relatives, is investigating him for allegedly owning wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

But, Singh, the 36-year-old youngest son of a retired clerk of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), claims he is being framed by business rivals.

Initially thought to be a coal merchant, Singh, tax officials said, was primarily engaged in civil construction work and selling electrical spares to coal companies, including BCCL. He is also into property deals.

“He (L.B.Singh) has accumulated huge amounts of wealth within a short span of five years which is not in accordance with his known sources of income,” said an IT department official, who did not want to be quoted.

But in a press conference on Thursday, Singh said he was being falsely implicated by his business rivals. “I have only seven accounts in the name of different family members,” he said and added that a majority of the accounts sealed by the income tax department weren’t his.

Singh said he had never thought about such a huge amount of money even in his wildest imagination. “I pay income tax regularly and if any tax is pending I will certainly pay it immediately,” he said, but refused to divulge his net worth or annual income.

Singh said he would do so only after consulting his chartered accountant, who, incidentally, was also being investigated.

On Thursday, tax officials, led by additional director of investigation of Jharkhand Ajit Kumar Srivastava, zeroed in two banks, Bank of India’s Deotand branch and Uco Bank in Jharia.

On Wednesday, they raided Singh’s residence, Shimla Bahal, in Jharia, and went through documents that apparently revealed as many as 10 accounts held by him and in the name of relatives at the Ena branch of Bank of India.

Sources claimed some of these accounts were in his wife’s name, Anita Devi, while others were in the name of relatives Prabhawati Devi, Ramdev Singh and R.P. Singh.

Investigations have apparently revealed that Singh had more bank accounts in other cities like Raniganj, Asansol and Calcutta and at Gonia Chapra in Uttar Pradesh, his ancestral home.

Taxmen have also searched the Dhanbad residence of B.N. Sinha, Singh’s chartered accountant.

Sources claimed tax authorities were tracking the bank account of Pawan Singh, the driver of Singh, for two months since September when Rs 15 crore was deposited into it.

Finally, Srivastava and his team arrived in Dhanbad on Tuesday and launched raids from the next day.

Do you think IT department should have acted earlier?

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