I-T searches popular food outlets in TN

Income-Tax sleuths on Thursday conducted searches at 32 premises, including several in Chennai, belonging to noted chain of restaurants like Saravana bhavan, Anjappar, Grand Sweets and Hot Breads in connection with suspected tax evasion.

The raids were reportedly carried out by over 100 investigators. Officials hinted that there was suspicion over tax evasion by suppression of income by these groups by various means including siphoning off and diverting fund.

There was no report of cash seizure and gold till late in the evening, but documents of suspicious money transfers may have been seized.

“A total of 32 places were searched. They were carried out at premises, head offices, and residences of senior executives of Saravana Bhavan, Grand Sweets, Anjappar and Hot Breads. The raids began at 8 am, after a tip-off was received on undisclosed income handled by these hotel groups. Their foreign operations are also under scrutiny,” anI-T official said.

Hot Breads’ M Mahadevan, who has an office in Teynampet, has been handling most of the overseas franchises of the other three chains of restaurant. “We were focussing on Hot Breads’ operation in India and abroad. Since other chain of restaurants are linked to Mahadevan, we conducted searches in the offices of other restaurants as well,” an I-Tofficial noted.

When contacted by DTNext, Mahadevan said he was not fully informed about the situation in Chennai as he had been out of the country. The restaurateur explained that he would make a statement only after ascertaining the details from the I-Tdepartment.

The ED is also keenly observing the overseas operations of these firms. “If the I-T searches reveal money laundering, we may step in,” an ED official said.

Tax raids on 4 actors, 3 producers in Bengaluru
The Income Tax (I-T) Department on Thursday carried out raids on the residences of four top Kannada film actors and three leading producers in a simultaneous state-wide exercise, officials said. Actors Shivarajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar, sons of Kannada thespian late Rajkumar, and Yash and Sudeep came under the I-T lens, officials said, as the bigwigs of the state film industry woke up to the knocks of Income-Tax officials on their doors. The raids were carried out across 23 locations in the state and involved around 200 sleuths, they said.

‘Rockline’ Venkatesh, C R Manohar and Vijay Kiraganduru are the film producers whose residences were raided, the officials said. The raids on one of the places, the I-T sources said, unearthed a huge cache of cash and gold ornaments. The I-T officials had brought with them a goldsmith to evaluate the ornaments. Nicknamed ‘Hat trick star’, Shivarajkumar is the son-in-law of former chief minister late S Bangarappa. ‘Power-star’ Puneeth Rajkumar shot to fame for his role as a child artist in the Kannada movie Bettada Hoovu and had won a National Film Award. Sudeep, who anchored the Kannada version of Big Boss, was hailed for his role in the movie Eega (Makkhi in Hindi) and the multi-lingual Baahubali, which broke records in box office collections.