I-T swoop on 2 groups in four states including Chhattisgarh
   Date :18-Sep-2019

 
Staff Reporter :
 
Raipur
 
200 tax sleuths divided into 37 teams taking part in concurrent operations spread over 32 premises of Wadhwani Groups and Agrawal Groups in Raipur
 
Searches also under way at multiple premises in Nagpur, Dhanbad and Kolkata
 
 
In a massive and wide-spread concurrent swoop, a team of over 200 tax sleuths from Investigation Wing of Income Tax Department of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on Tuesday noon mounted search operations at over 50 premises in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Maharashtra. The extent of operation could be gauged from the fact that the taxmen from neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh arrived Raipur by flight and train last night and on Tuesday morning.
 
In all, 37 teams comprising around 5 members each, roped in from Gwalior, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Raipur carried out concurrent searches on residential, office and factory premises of many leading businessmen, traders, their business partners and affiliates of two major business groups – Wadhwani Group and Agrawal Group – spread across these four states. Though exact quantum of tax evasion is yet to be ascertained since the searches were in the preliminary phase, it is reported that the evasion is running into several crores, which also includes dubious ‘Benaami’ transactions.
 
So much so that the Principal Director General (Investigation) Amit Jain, a 1985-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) has been tipped to be arriving from Bhopal to Raipur in day or two for assisting the Chhattisgarh Unit of Investigation Wing, where the Principal Director (Investigation) Alok Johri was overseeing and coordinating with the teams on ground including Joint Director (Investigation) Siddhartha Meena for the real-time operations in Raipur, Dhanbad, Kolkata and Nagpur. Well-placed sources in Income Tax Department averred to The Hitavada that the searches were carried out only after meticulous ‘recee’ of these two business groups for a period over six months. “So much secrecy was maintained about the entire operations that not even the media persons came to know about it till past Tuesday noon. Even the top brass of Investigation Wing