Income Tax Dept Sets Up Digital Intelligence Labs Across India

The Income Tax Department is setting up 22 Digital Intelligence and Analytics Labs across the country to examine digital evidence related to tax evasion and undisclosed assets.

These labs will allow forensic examination of seized mobiles, laptops, hard disks, emails and cloud data, including recovery of deleted data. The National Forensic Sciences University has issued a tender for installing and testing these labs on the department’s behalf.

With financial transactions and related records increasingly going digital, the role of electronic evidence is growing. According to the department’s Digital Evidence Manual, investigations will no longer be limited to mobiles or computers — records from servers, emails, financial software and cloud storage will also fall within scope. Original copies of digital evidence will be preserved to prevent tampering during investigation, and records will be kept of which officer held a device or data and when. Since mobiles and laptops may contain personal data, records will be kept in a confidential, secure system with restricted access.

Labs to be set up in 22 cities, including Bhopal The project is costed at around ₹73.46 crore. The labs will be established in these cities-