Lucknow/New Delhi: Premises of liquor baron and businessman Ponty Chadha were raided by the Income Tax Department for the second day Thursday in UP and Delhi for suspected tax evasion during which a number of documents and computer peripherals were seized.
The I-T teams, according to sources, have spread to two new locations in South Delhi for searching the premises belonging to Chadha's associates.
A late night operation by a team of 20 officials armed
with counting machines and gas cutters at the basement of
Centrestage Mall in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi did not
yield any large seizure of cash, top sources in the department
said.
I-T officials however declined to hazard any guess on the
possible amount that has been seized till now from the
searches as the operations are spread across various
locations amidst reports that over Rs 100 crore has been
seized.
"Some documents and computer hardware have been taken
into possession and are under inspection," sources said.
Some premises of international payment dealers in the
national capital are also under the scanner of the department
as it suspects money being routed from locations in Dubai and
few western countries with regard to this case.
Yesterday, searches were conducted in Delhi at 13
locations including at the posh Sainik Farms, Lajpat Nagar,
New Freinds Colony while in UP, I-T teams comprising 200
officials, undertook similar operations at six locations in
Noida, Moradabad and state capital Lucknow.
Chadha, according to I-T sources, is in Dubai at present
in connection with a family function. Neither Chadha,
considered to be close to the Mayawati government, nor any of
his family members were available for comments.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, February 02, 2012, 16:42