By IANS
Bangalore : Income tax sleuths Tuesday raided the residences and office premises of leading builders and investors to unearth evidence of irregularities in land deals.
Twenty-five premises were searched and Rs.10 million in cash was seized, statement late Tuesday night from the Directorate of Income Tax (Investigations) said.
"Incriminating documents of property transactions were recovered. By a preliminary estimate, investments in these transactions run into several billions of rupees. Other documents reveal substantial investments in bank accounts," it added.
Director of Income Tax (Investigations) B.R. Sudhakara told IANS that a clear picture was yet to emerge as the probe was in progress.
"The searches are still going on. The daylong raids have revealed the extent of evasion and non-disclosure of the transactions taking place in and around the city, where demand for land, commercial and residential properties has been going up sharply," Sudhakara said.
The raids were carried out simultaneously across the city with a posse of police under the supervision of senior income tax officials.
Police officials accompanying the sleuths said raids in the premises of S. Manjunath, a leading builder-cum-property dealer, yielded substantial cash, gold, documents and stamp papers related to buying and selling of lands, residential plots and houses.
The office-cum-residential premises of two other developers – Reddy Veeranna and Kupendra Reddy – were also searched, leading to the seizure of unaccounted cash, forged documents and passbooks of bank accounts.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy denied reports that realtor Manjunath was associated with his family and handled property deals on his behalf.
"So many people have began claiming to be close to me and my family since I became chief minister last year. It is for the authorities to verify such claims," Kumaraswamy told reporters at the secretariat when the raids were brought to his notice.
Sources in the ruling Janata Dal-Secular said Manjunath was only a supporter of the party and had participated in its campaign during the last elections.