Raid on Pothys in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pondy

In the day-long raid, several crores of unaccounted cash and documents were reportedly said to have been seized by the sleuths. 

According to sources, a special police team had seized Rs 2 crore from two employees of Pothys travelling on a bus from Puducherry to Chennai a couple of days ago. The police team were checking the buses to monitor liquor smuggling from Puducherry and found Rs 2 crore kept in two bags. During interrogation, the youth claimed that they were employees of the Pothys. Police then kept the money at Vanoor station and told the employees to bring valid documents to support their claim. However, nobody came forward to claim the cash. Police then informed about the seizure and handed over the cash to the Income Tax department. This resulted in the raids by the Income Tax officials on the textile retail chain.

Sources in the Income Tax department said, the raids were conducted after a scrutiny of the accounts of Pothys, which had shown prima facie evidence suggesting large scale tax misappropriations. Following this, the IT team had raided to quantify the tax evasion. IT sources said the total extent of tax evasion could be ascertained only after scrutiny of the seized documents. 

Raids were held on showrooms and the houses of the managing partners of the textile showroom in Chennai and other parts of the state. The Pothys offices at Trivandrum was also checked.