Income Tax Department officials on Thursday swooped down on as many as 40 premises of a Gujarat-headquartered leading luxury bathware company and residential premises of its owners, financiers and business consultants.
The raids yielded unaccounted cash of Rs 10 crore and 12 bank lockers. Huge pile of incriminating documents were recovered during the raids, which would continue for two to three days, according to I-T Department sources.
The raids were conducted on the Asian Granito India, which is one the country’s largest luxury surfaces and bathware solutions brand owned by Kamlesh Patel.
Besides Patel, who lives in Adani Shantigram in Ahmedabad, and his family members, the raids were also conducted on the premises of financiers and business consultants, including Sejal Shah, who is known to be handling the financial affairs of a former Gujarat finance minister and a veteran BJP leader. The other financiers are Sanket Shah, Deepak Shah and Ruchit Shah. The raids were conducted on their offices in Narayan Nagar locality in Ahmedabad’s Paldi area.
Patel’s family members, whose premises were raided, include Mukesh Patel, Bhavesh Patel and Suresh Patel.
Besides Ahmedabad, the Income Tax officials conducted searches in the Himmatnagar, Morbi and Surat offices of the company. All the 12 bank lockers of the company at the Nutan Nagrik Cooperative Bank, Bombay Mercantile Bank and HDFC Bank were sealed.
The searches were continuing at 30 premises in Ahmedabad until late Thursday evening. As many as 200 Income-Tax officials and staff are engaged in the entire operation.
