India, Feb. 20 -- Police probing the alleged "biryani tax scam" have revealed that artificial intelligence and big data analytics played a key role in uncovering what is estimated to be a Rs.70,000 crore tax evasion racket spread across India.

The investigation, which began with routine checks of biryani restaurants in Hyderabad, expanded after officials detected large-scale manipulation of billing software used by eateries across the country.

Police and tax officials have analysed a massive billing database used by more than one lakh restaurants, examining nearly 60 terabytes of data linked to around 1.77 lakh restaurant IDs, as reported by The Times of India.

Officials used computer tools and artificial intelligence to study billing ...