Income Tax searches 130 premises of south India-based jewellery chains

Sources said that I-T officials from Kerala and Tamil Nadu carried out the raids in the shop’s branch in T Nagar around 8 am.

They stopped employees from entering the shop as they surveyed the premises.

Later, they also raided the new showroom in Chromepet.

The raids were led by the Kerala I-T team, which also searched the company’s corporate office in Thrissur beside its other properties in Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.

According to sources from the I-T department, the raids were carried out to check if the company was evading tax after demonetisation.

The officials found huge cash deposits and have collected information regarding their sales to check for disproportionate assets. They are currently scrutinising the data, claimed sources.

A team of I-T officials from Tiruchy division conducted simultaneous search at their outlets located at Tiruchy, Thanjavur and Karur districts on Wednesday. Sources said, an eight member team led by the Assistant Director (Income Tax), Tiruchy Yasar Araffat went to the jewellery located near Theppakulam near Chathiram bus stand at 9 am.

They searched the outlet for eight hours and took away a few documents, claimed a source. He added that they let the employees go ahead with their usual work. Another team from Tiruchy went to the outlet at Old Bus stand road in Thanjavur, Uchchi Pillaitheru outlet at Kumbakonam and Coimbatore road in Karur.