Income Tax raids 20 premises of Indiabulls

The searches were carried out under the supervision of the Directorate of Income Tax , Investigation Unit in Mumbai.

Suspecting tax evasion by real estate giant Indiabulls, the Income Tax Department Wednesday carried out raids at 20 premises of the company in Mumbai and New Delhi, in an operation involving nearly 1,000 I-T officers.

According to sources, the raids — one of the biggest conducted in recent times by the central agency — commenced at 8 am on Wednesday and continued through the day.

The raids were carried out at the offices of Indiabulls Housing Finance, Indiabulls Ventures and Indiabulls Real Estate.

The searches were carried out under the supervision of the Directorate of Income Tax , Investigation Unit in Mumbai. The raids were carried out at the offices of Indiabulls Housing Finance, Indiabulls Ventures and Indiabulls Real Estate.

“Maximum officers were roped in to conduct searches at the company’s Mumbai office at Indiabulls Finance Centre in Elphinstone. Documents and hard discs have been seized,” a senior official told The Indian Express. “The seized documents would be studied for unaccounted money as we suspect that they are not making the rightful declaration. These papers could help unearth unaccounted cash,” the official said.

Shares of the Indiabulls group companies fell in the range of 8 to 10 per cent after the news of the raids broke.

In a statement, Indiabulls said, “This morning, officials of the I-T department came to some of our offices to check our books, in the normal course. We are extending all assistance to the team of officials. We are confident that the officials will find our corporate practices and books satisfactory.”

“At Indiabulls group, we follow the ethical and legal standards of the highest order in all our businesses and have robust institutional measures to monitor as well as implement corporate governance of the highest standards. We are confident that these on the spot checks, in the normal course, will vindicate the same. We further state that there is no information which has not been announced to the Exchanges under Regulation 30 of SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015,” it added.

Last time, Indiabulls ran into controversy when the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) probed the sponsorship by one of its group companies, Indiabulls Realtech Ltd, to arrested NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal’s Public Welfare Foundation Trust for organising the Nashik Festival.

Credit : http://indianexpress.com/