Income Tax department raided at least 20 premises of Indiabulls on Wednesday across Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. This was one of the biggest raids undertaken by the I-T department in recent times. The raid lasted for more than 5 hours at some locations. Nearly 1,000 Income Tax officials were involved in the raid. The agency personnels at Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai maintained coordination during the raid.

As of now, the reason behind the raid is said to be an alleged tax evasion by Indiabulls to the tune of Rs 1,500 crores. I-T officials were probing the tax return papers of the company. They also examined the details of a Rs 1,700 corporate loan taken by the group.

The raids were conducted at the premises of  Indiabulls Housing Finance, Indiabulls Real Estate and Indiabulls Ventures. Apart from probing tax evasion, the officials were also investigating the details of an alleged Rs 1,000 crore benami transaction. The company is accused of selling its properties in an unaccounted or superficially accounted manner.

Following the raid, the shares of Indiabulls dropped significantly, which showed the amount of investor’s distrust created due to the raid. The .shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance came down by 2.67 percent down and trailed at Rs 695.30. Whereas, the rate Indiabulls Real Estate and Indiabulls Ventures shares dropped by 1.04 percent and 2.82 percent respectively.

In defence, Indiabulls claim that the company has not indulged into any sort of unethical activities or attempted to evade tax. It has described the massive raid undertaken by the I-T department as a normal routine activity to check the financial book of records of the company.

In the financial year of 2015-16, Indiabulls paid a total income tax of Rs 782 crores, whereas, Rs 372 crores were paid by the firm as service tax. #casansaar (PTI - Hindustan Times)