..
The surat Income Tax department officials raided offices of two land developer groups and a diamond trader on Thursday, and seized unaccounted income to the tune of Rs 156.4 crore and Rs 81.50 lakh in cash from these parties. Sources said that more raids will be carried out.
The developer groups have been identified as Sagar Builders and Rushikesh Developers, while Shah Brothers is a diamond trading firm. The investigating wing of the I-T department conducted raids at 55 places.
The officials recovered unaccounted income to the tune of Rs 41 crore each from the Sagar group and the Shah Brothers, while Rs 15 crore was recovered from Tarul Rawal (a partner in the Rushikesh group), Rs 9.4 crore from Pranav Kagalwala (a partner in the Rushikesh group), and Rs 45 crore from Raju Kagalwala (a partner in the Rushikesh group) and Rs 50 lakh from Suresh Ahir, a land developer.
The officials had seized Rs 81 lakh in cash from these parties, of which Rs 50 lakh was recovered from Ahir. The officials also seized 16 lockers of these parties in different banks.
Sources said the amount is likely to go up as one premises of the Rushikesh group is yet to searched.
"The bank lockers are also to be checked and we will get to know more when they are opened," said the official. Similar operations were carried out in branches of these firms in Ahmedabad and Mumbai during the raids, which started on Tuesday.
Protest against questioning of textile traders
Following the Income tax raids on one of the construction houses in Surat by the Surat Income Tax department, the shops in the prime textile market — Radha Krishna Textile Market (RKTM) — pulled down their shutters on Wednesday. The I-T department cracked down on Sagar builders, the company which is also constructing a large portion of the RKTM. On Tuesday, the I-T officials visited the market where Sagar builders' is located and also questioned some of the textile traders. The move to record their statements irked the textile traders and pulled down the shutters of their shops. The market, however, reopened on Thursday.
There are over 40,000 shops in the RKTM situated on the Ring Road where around 2,000 traders and 20,000 workers are engaged in textile trading.
11 June, 2010 by admin