I-T Department carries out searches at Indiabulls premises

The Income Tax Department on Wednesay carried out search operations at numerous offices and premises of Indiabulls Group including in Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai for alleged tax evasion to the tune of about Rs 1,500 crore

Hundreds of I-T sleuths and local police personnel conducted search operations at a large number of premises of the diversified group, department sources said

The exercise is likely to continue on Thursday, they said

The searches are part of a probe into a corporate borrowing worth Rs 1,700 crore that Indiabulls had carried out, the sources said, adding the company is suspected to have evaded income tax to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore

Most of the searched premises of the Group were in Mumbai

The Department is also looking into suspected benami transactions worth Rs 1,000 crore which were conducted by the company during the sale of its properties in the past, they said.

Indiabulls Housing Finance limited acknowledged the development in a clarification to the BSE

"With reference to today's email received from the exchange, we would like to state that this morning, officials of the Income Tax Department came to some of our offices to check our books, in the normal course. We are extending all assistance to the team of officials. We are confident that the officials will find our corporate practices and books satisfactory

"At Indiabulls group, we follow the ethical and legal standards of the highest order in all our businesses and have robust institutional measures to monitor as well as implement corporate governance of the highest standards. We are confident that these on the spot check, in the normal course, will vindicate the same," the company said in a BSE filing

It added there was "no information which has not been announced to the Exchanges under Regulation 30 of SEBI (lODR) Regulations, 2015."

Indiabulls in a separate statement said that during the last year, the Group has paid an aggregate of Rs 782 crore as income tax and Rs 372 crore as service tax to the department.

Shares of Indiabulls group firms fell up to 7 per cent on Wednesday after the I-T searches.