I-T department raids Raymond premises across the nation

The income tax (I-T) department raided 15 locations, including residential and industrial premises of Raymond group head Gautam Singhania, spread across nine cities on Thursday.

The raids were conducted after the department received "reliable" information of under-representation of income and inflation of expenses to evade payment of income tax, sources said.

A finance ministry official said the intelligence wing of the I-T department led the searches. He declined to comment on search findings and the names of suspected tax evaders. The raids were carried out at Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Jalegaon, Ratnagiri, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Walsad.

The raids could be a fallout of the government's effort to clamp down on black money.

Sources said it might be linked with recent details received from some European countries, including France and Germany, on hundreds of overseas bank accounts in which Indians have parked their money, mostly unaccounted.

The official did not say if the raids were a follow-up of the I-T probe going on into these accounts. "It would be premature to say so as we have been doing localised investigation as well. Some tangible developments in these probes will be made soon," he said.

A Raymond group spokesperson said I-T sleuths did search their premises and they were fully cooperating with the investigating agency.