NAGPUR: The Income-Tax sleuths on Wednesday conducted searches at the office premises of Chairman of Purti Sugar Factory and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Gadkari here, official sources said.

"We are conducting searches at the office premises and at Purti Sugar factory whose Chairman is Nitin Gadkari", a top official of Income Tax investigation wing, said.

The official did not prefer to divulge detail information on the searches.  I-T officials also searched the premise of one Manish Mehta, associated with the Factory, they added.

Gadkari, former Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council, is presently the state unit president of BJP. He runs a chain of businesses under brand name `Purti' including departmental stores acorss the state.