The Income Tax agency has summoned Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi in relation to a tax fraud case involving more than Rs 160 crore.

 Azmi's role came under scanner after the Income Tax department started investigating the Vinayak Group of Varanasi. Azmi has been summoned on April 20 in Varanasi by the Income Tax investigations department.

In Varanasi, Vinayak Group has built a number of structures, including high-rise residential buildings, malls, and commercial retail centres. According to sources, an IT investigation discovered that the Vinayak Group had three partners listed on paper: Sarvesh Agarwal, Sameer Doshi, and Abha Gupta. Ganesh Gupta, the late husband of Abha Gupta, was rumoured to be an intimate friend and business partner of Abu Asim Azmi.

Ganesh Gupta ran his office out of Azmi's building in Colaba while serving as the Samajwadi Party's general secretary in Maharashtra before to his passing.

Sources claim that throughout the course of the inquiry, the WhatsApp conversations, emails, and declarations of the three partners were accessed. It was then discovered that the income earned by the Vinayak Group was split into four equal portions, with the fourth portion going to Abu Asim Azmi.

The total income generated between 2018 and 2022 was around Rs 200 crores of which Income Tax disclosure was done of Rs 160 crores of which it is suspected that Rs 40 crores were sent to Azmi through hawala channels.

The company activities are managed by Azmi's frontman, Anees Azmi, in Varanasi, and it was through Anees that the hawala remittances were made to Azmi in Bombay.

In Colaba last year, searches were conducted at Abu Asim Azmi's offices. Moreover, searches were conducted at Doshi, Agarwal, and Gupta's offices in Varanasi and Mumbai.

Following this, Azmi was called in for questioning as part of the Income Tax department's inquiry into the matter.

Image source: India Today