Tax sleuths raid IVRCL premises

The income-tax department on Thursday carried out search and seizure operations simultaneously at the offices of the infrastructure major IVRCL across the country, including the headquarters in Hyderabad.

Though the trigger for the raids is not known, sources have confirmed that the searches had begun in the company’s offices in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kochi, Bangalore and Chennai at about 8 am on Thursday.

Details of what the searches threw up were not available.
A senior I-T official sought to play down the issue saying it was “normal process.”

“We go by information collected from internal and external sources. We are yet to collate the information gathered from various locations,” he said, declining to give the reasons.

The searches are likely to continue on Friday, though this could not be ascertained from officials of the company or the I-T department.

IVRCL has been under the scanner for a while, with a major search carried out on its premises in Ranchi in 2009-10. The infrastructure company is facing allegations of bribing Jharkhand State Electricity Board officials. A key official of IVRCL handling operations in Jharkhand is said to be absconding and the state vigilance department is currently searching for him. However, there is no official confirmation or denial of the developments and allegations.

IRB Infra was another company reported to have been raided by taxmen during the day. However, company officials could not be reached for comment.