Income Tax Department has been carrying out search and seizure operations at Hetero Drugs, a Hyderabad-based API company for the last few days. Searches have resulted in seizure of unexplained cash worth Rs 143 Crore so far.
The unaccounted income unearthed is estimated to be around Rs 550 Crore till now. Different teams of I-T officials were carrying out searches at the corporate office and production centres of the company in Six states. Hetero has heavily exported drugs to other countries.
The company exports drugs to the US, Europe, Dubai and Africa. Pen drives, hard disks as well as electronic devices were seized during the raids. The department has found that some of the evidence had been destroyed by Hetero. Most were found to have made fake invoices. The company bought lands at many places using the money.
IT officials also found 16 bank lockers. Interestingly, the pharma major is one of the firms that has tied up with Russian Direct Investment Fund to manufacture COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V in India.
