The Income Tax Department on Thursday raided at least 18 locations of three major construction companies — Van Vrindavan Constructions, Maurya Constructions and Maurya Infrastructures along with the house of former editor of a newspaper in Ranchi.
According to officials, raids were conducted primarily in Ranchi at Ratu Road, Shaheed Chowk, and Morhabadi areas following a tip-off of huge tax evasion received by the IT sleuths. “After getting the tip-off at around 100 officials of the Income Tax Department raided all the locations at 9:15 am which is still being continued,” said a senior IT official requesting anonymity.
Sources revealed that the search and seizure operations had led to the recovery of several incriminating documents, which have been sealed. Officials confirmed that the raids were conducted on a tip off of huge tax evasion by the three companies.
“Raids are being conducted at the residences and offices of Van Vrindavan Construction Director Abhay Singh, former editor of a local newspaper Harinarayan Singh, Ashish Singh, Veena Singh, Murari Narayan Tiwari, K Tiwari, Ripunjay Singh, Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Ashish Kumar and Ramesh Kumar Singh,” said an official.
According to the official, Ripunjay Singh and Ashish Kumar are the directors of Maurya Constructions and Maurya Infrastructure respectively, while remaining others were the office bearers of the three companies.
Residence of an Ashok Nagar-based engineer Dilip Kumar, working with the state government, was also raided by the income tax sleuths. Though, the raids were being conducted till late in the evening while filing this report, Rs 18 lakh, 4 lockers and 10 bank accounts had been recovered in the raid. Several land related documents were also recovered during the raid.