I-T raids on builder with SP connections

A joint team of the Income Tax Department, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided over 20 premises of the Shalimar Group in Lucknow, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

The Shalimar Group is one of the biggest builder-developers of north India, and Sanjay Seth, who heads the company as one of the two main partners, is known for his connections with powerful 'netas' and bureaucrats.

Seth has managed to bag several large-scale projects of the state government, running into hundreds of crores. He had been equally influential in the previous Mayawati regime.

Interestingly, Seth was already in the news as his name had featured in the list of nine MLCs to be nominated to the Vidhan Parishad, the upper house of the UP legislature. The nominations have been held up, sources say, due to governor Ram Naik's objection to Seth's nomination.

Sources in the raiding teams revealed that cash and jewellery worth crores of rupees had been seized along with several incriminating documents indicating tax evasion and money laundering.

The sources also said that prima facie it had been established that black money of several politicians and bureaucrats had been invested in the group.

A team of over 100 officers was busy rummaging through the documents seized till late evening.