The Income-Tax department, in its ongoing quest to curb black money, has seized Rs 5.7 crore in 2000 notes, 90 lakh in old notes, 28 kg of bullion (gold biscuits), 4 kg of other gold and jewellery from a 'secret bathroom chamber' of a hawala dealer in Karnataka's Challakere town, reported PTI.

Chillakare is around 40 kms from the district headqurters of Chitradurga, which is famously known as the 'oil city' due to the large presence of edible oil mills. According to PTI, officials stated that the taxman conducted the raid based on intelligence inputs while the sleuths found a hidden stainless steel safe above the wash basin, inside the tiled walls of the bathroom. The cash and gold seized was kept sanitised against termites using hundreds of mothballs.

The raid was carried forward after department's investigation wing in Panaji began searches against casino and bullion traders in Karnataka's Hubballi and Chitradurga's districts.

Here is a video of the 'secret bathroom chamber':

Post Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetization announcement on November 8, the department has been conducting raids at full throttle across the country. Earlier in the day, the department made a fresh seizure of Rs 24 crore cash in new notes. In what has been known as the biggest haul of cash and gold post demonetization, over Rs 142 crore unaccounted assets were earlier recovered in tax operations in Chennai. On further interrogation, the Rs 24 crore seizure was made which tallied the entire amount to Rs 166 crore.

On Thursday, raids were launched in eight premises, on a group engaged in sand mining in Chennai. Out of the Rs 142 crore undisclosed assets, Rs 10 crore were in new notes while the remaining worth came from gold bars weighing 127 kg.

In another raid conducted by the department on Friday, 15 fake accounts were discovered at Chandni Chowk's Axis Bank where Rs 450 crore was seized.

(With agency inputs)