New Delhi, Feb 22 : The Income Tax Department has carried out search and seizure operation last week at 22 premises of a Betul-based Soya products manufacturing group at Betul and Satna in MP, Mumbai and Solapur in Maharashtra besides the west Bengal capital. The I-T Department said that the group has unaccounted income to the tune of Rs 259 crore by way of introduction of share capital at huge premium from Kolkata-based shell companies. During the course of the search operation, unaccounted cash of over Rs 8 crore and foreign currency of various countries amounting to more than Rs 44 lakh were seized, an investigation report by the department said. Nine bank lockers have also been searched. The group has also undisclosed income of Rs 90 crore in its books of accounts by way of sale of paper investments in shell companies to another set of shell companies of Kolkata. None of the companies were found to be operational at their declared address and the group could not confirm the identity of such companies or any of its Directors, the department said. Many of the companies mentioned were found to be struck off by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. During the search, it was seen that bogus loss to the tune of Rs 52 crore has been claimed by the group to suppress their profits, by indulging in intra-group out-of-exchange contract settlement. Various companies were formed in the name of employees to carry out these transactions, while there was no actual business carried out between them. Directors of these companies were not aware about any such transactions. The group has also claimed incorrect Long Term Capital Gains exemption of over Rs 27 crore on sale of shares of a group entity, a statement from the department said. Investigations revealed that the purchase of these shares was not genuine as group directors purchased shares of this entity at nominal value from non-existent Kolkata-based shell companies. Various types of evidence including chats among key persons of the group reflects unexplained cash payment and hawala transactions of over Rs 15 crore. The department said that incriminating evidence in the form of digital media such as Laptops, hard drives, pen drives etc have been found and seized. From the investigation so far, undisclosed income over Rs 450 crore has been detected. Further investigations are in progress. /IANS