The Income Tax (IT) Department on Saturday raided the office premises of a diamond-prospecting company in Chhattisgarh in which controversial Bollywood financier Bharat Shah is a partner. IT Department sources told PTI on Saturday that two separate teams raided the registered office of B Vijaykumar Chhattisgarh Exploration Company (BVCE) in Priyadarshini Nagar in Raipur as well as their under-construction sophisticated diamond laboratory at Mainpur, 130 km from the state capital.
The raids were conducted as the BVCE, the state mining department as well as the state government were not providing any information about the activities of the company, the sources said. BVCE is a joint venture company between the state government, the state mining corporation and B Vijaykumar group, which is the largest exporter of polished diamonds from India. It has been given diamond prospecting licence for aerial survey in 4600 square km in Deobhog area in Raipur district. "The initial directors of the company are Bharat Santilal Shah, his son Rashesh Shah, S Lakshinarayan Shah and A K Agrawal," IT sources added. The IT officials are scrutinising the documents they have come across during the raids, they said. Bureau Report