The law firm Singh & Associates, which has been on a lateral hiring spree this year, has been raided by the government’s Income Tax Department (ITD) yesterday as part of a raid on its founding partner Manoj K Singh.

We have reached out to Singh and the firm and two of its spokespersons for comment and will update this story if and when we get anything.

Update 20 October: Singh & Associates has made the following statement:

We write to you with regards to your article dated 15th October 2020, published on the platform Legally India. In the wee hours of Wednesday, 14th October 2020, the Income Tax Officials knocked on our doors and proceeded to search our premises. We are immensely proud of our team for fully cooperating with the officials. However, we strongly refute and deny the allegations of seizure of Rs 5.5 crores cash, as stated in your article; the same is false.

We hereby assert and notify you that no such cash as indicated in your article was seized from the premises/offices of Singh & Associates or our Founding Partner Mr Manoj K Singh.

Your article’s contents about unaccounted cash transactions are false, baseless and misleading. This has severely damaged our brand name, reputation and goodwill in the market.

We request you to take cognizance of all the facts presented to you and also request you to recheck your facts with the concerned authorities and publish a clarification conveying our stance to your readers.

According to the ITD, it had carried out a “search and seizure action... in the case of a leading advocate practicing (sic) in the field of commercial arbitration and alternate dispute resolution”, across 38 properties in Delhi, NCR and Haryana.

The department said that it had recovered Rs 5.5 crore in cash and found “incriminating documents of unaccounted cash transactions and investments” over several years, including “substantial digital data reflecting unaccounted transactions of the assessee and his associates, who are financers and builders”.

The department did not name the advocate, but we understand according to two authoritative sources with knowledge of the raid, that the firm’s founding partner Manoj Kumar Singh was the target of the raid, which the firm has denied [UPDATE-1: See statement above].

Besides being the founder of Singh & Associates, Manoj K Singh was only last month elected as chairman of the Delhi bar council’s executive committee, and is part of the bar council’s rules committee, according to a press release on 9 September 2020. (Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta was elected chairman, with Himal Akhtar as vice-chairman of the Delhi bar council at the same time).

According to the department’s release, the unnamed advocate was “suspected to be receiving substantial amounts in cash from his clients, to settle their disputes”, and had allegedly “received Rs. 117 crore from a client in cash, whereas he had shown only Rs 21 crore in his records, which was received through cheque”.

“In another case, he received more than Rs. 100 crore in cash from an infrastructure and engineering company for its arbitration proceedings with a public sector company,” claimed the department.

The tax department alleged in its statement that the “unaccounted cash received, has been invested by the assessee in purchase of residential and commercial properties and in taking over of trusts engaged in running of schools”, adding: “Evidences recovered indicate investment of more than Rs. 100 crore in cash in several properties in posh areas in the last two years. The assessee and his associates have also purchased several schools and properties, for which also more than Rs. 100 crore was paid in cash. He has also taken accommodation entries worth several crores.”

Singh is not the first law firm founder to have faced raids from the tax man.

In 2016, T&T Law founder Rohit Tandon declared Rs 125 crore to the tax department after a raid.

And in 2019, prior to the arrest of OP Khaitan & Co managing partner Gautam Khaitan for alleged involvement in the AgustaWestland chopper scam, he had been raided by the tax department.

Manoj K Singh: Decorated man & firm

Full tax department statement

Income Tax Department carries out searches in Delhi, NCR and Haryana Posted On: 15 OCT 2020 7:34PM by PIB Delhi

The Income Tax Department has carried out a search and seizure action on 14.10.2020 in the case of a leading advocate practicing in the field of commercial arbitration and alternate dispute resolution. He was suspected to be receiving substantial amounts in cash from his clients, to settle their disputes. During the search 38 premises spread over Delhi, NCR and Haryana have been covered.

During the search, cash of Rs. 5.5 crore has been seized, while 10 lockers have been placed under restraint. Incriminating documents of unaccounted cash transactions and investments made by the assessee over several years have been found. Substantial digital data reflecting unaccounted transactions of the assessee and his associates, who are financers and builders, has also been recovered.

In one case, the assessee had received Rs. 117 crore from a client in cash, whereas he had shown only Rs. 21 crore in his records, which was received through cheque. In another case, he received more than Rs. 100 crore in cash from an infrastructure and engineering company for its arbitration proceedings with a public sector company.

The unaccounted cash received, has been invested by the assessee in purchase of residential and commercial properties and in taking over of trusts engaged in running of schools. Evidences recovered indicate investment of more than Rs. 100 crore in cash in several properties in posh areas in the last two years. The assessee and his associates have also purchased several schools and properties, for which also more than Rs. 100 crore was paid in cash. He has also taken accommodation entries worth several crores.

Further investigations are in progress.