GUWAHATI: The Income Tax (I-T) Department has initiated investigations into extravagant Indian weddings, often featuring Bollywood celebrities and costing crores. These celebrations have come under the radar for allegedly involving unaccounted cash, with Jaipur emerging as a key centre for luxury wedding planning.
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According to news reports, investigations are focused on 20 top wedding planners in Jaipur, suspecting over ₹7,500 crore of undisclosed funds spent in the past year on opulent weddings. Officials have uncovered a deep network involving mule accounts, hawala agents, and fake bill generators, with links to cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Search operations began earlier this week and are expected to continue for several days. Authorities are tracing cash transactions at the moment, believed to account for 50-60% of total wedding expenses, including payments for foreign destination weddings that involve private jets and luxury arrangements.
Jaipur’s prominence in luxury wedding planning has drawn significant attention, with planners from other cities collaborating with Jaipur-based organisers. These planners coordinate with high-end vendors and celebrity managers while often accepting cash payments.
Further, fake billing by GST-registered entities has been identified as a key method to legitimise unaccounted funds, and initial leads for the probe were based on such transactions.