Lucknow. Income Tax Department teams raided 60 locations of Gallant Group on Wednesday to investigate the allegation of tax evasion of Rs 1,000 crore. Income tax evasion of Rs 200 crore has been reported in raids on the group’s offices and locations located in Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Delhi, Gujarat, West Bengal and Bihar. The company has interests in sponge iron, steel, rolling mills, power plants, flour mills and cement factories, besides real estate and other businesses.
According to sources, since Wednesday morning, various Income Tax teams searched documents related to tax evasion during raids at Chandra Prakash Agarwal’s companies, office, home, houses of brothers and relatives including houses. Four locations, including the flat of Shalimar Gallant Apartment and Sikandar Bagh, located in the metropolis of Lucknow, were searched.
Apart from the house of Gallant Group partner Shobhit Agarwal in the metropolis, action has been taken at five places in Kolkata. This group is also associated with the hotel business. This group has also got the contract for the residential and commercial scheme being developed on 175 acres by the Development Authority in Khorabar, Gorakhpur.
The Income Tax team has also raided the relatives of Chandra Prakash Agarwal located in Bihar. On the other hand, raids are going on in many cities including Surat, Bharuch in Gujarat. Several offices of the company and the residences of the owners are being searched in Delhi.
So far, the team has recovered documents of more than 100 properties worth crores of rupees. Apart from this, the documents related to suspicious transactions have also been recovered by the Income Tax Department. Several laptops and mobiles have also been seized. The group also has a partnership with Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Seth in Shalimar Gallant Apartments, Lucknow.