On Thursday morning, the I-T sleuths had started raiding the offices, godowns and homes of seven major traders in Nashik district to clamp down on hoarding and black-marketing of 2 pm on Saturday , while the premises of the seventh trader were searched till evening. Overall, the raids continued for almost 60 hours. The searches were conducted at 24 locations by 24 teams comprising 150 officials from I-T the departments of Thane, Pune, Aurangabad and Nashik. morning, the I-T sleuths had started raiding the offices, godowns and homes of seven major traders in Nashik district to clamp down on hoarding and black-marketing of onions . The raids on six of the traders continued till, while the premises of the seventh trader were searched till evening. Overall, the raids continued for almost 60 hours. The searches were conducted at 24 locations by 24 teams comprising 150 officials from I-T the departments of Thane, Pune, Aurangabad and Nashik. NASHIK: After accusations of hoarding and black-marketing, allegations of hawala transactions and links with Dubai continue to sting the prominent onion traders of Nashik. The Income Tax I-T ) department, which raided seven big onion traders in Nashik , now has evidence of their involvement in hawala transaction with Dubai connections.During the searches, conducted over two days, disproportionate assets were recovered from the traders. Moreover, the I-T department also unearthed evidence of the traders offering cash loans with interest rates of up to 3% per month.Speaking to TOI, the I-T department sources said, "We have conducted searches at various premises that belong to the big onion traders. However, certain documents seized during the searches are still being investigated."During searches, we recovered evidence proving that the traders are involved in hawala transaction with links to Dubai." Revealing the modus operandi of the traders, the I-T sources said, "The traders used to show export and import of onions. However, no actual export or import took place, though money was transferred.The sources did not reveal how many of the seven raided traders are involved in the hawala. "We did not find unaccounted for cash... but we did find unaccounted assets in the form of properties. These onion traders have assets like luxurious homes and offices in Nashik and other places. It is difficult right now to reveal the values of properties as we are in the process of assessing them. It will take a few days," said the I-T sources.They added, "We have also found evidences that these onion traders were offering cash loans with interest rates upto 3% per month."The government had stepped in when the average wholesale onion shot up from Rs 450 per quintal to Rs 2,450 per quintal at Lasalgaon in past two months. Retail onion prices had also gone up from Rs 10-15 per kg to nearly Rs 40-50 in various Indian cities.Finally, after instructions from the Prime Minister's office, a two-member team from the Union ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution had visited Lasalgaon on August 18 to check the fluctuation in wholesale onion prices and also to check if the farmers were the real beneficiaries of the price rise.

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