CHENNAI: The Buhari group and ETA Star group of companies came under the scanner of the Income Tax department as raids were carried out in 74 places across the country. Income tax sources told Express that searches were conducted in 49 places in Chennai, including at a reputed educational institution, the Chennai Citi centre and several other places, as they suspected large-scale tax evasion by the groups.
Searches were also carried out in two premises of Coastal Energen Pvt Ltd (Energen), the Power Generating Flagship Company of the Coal and Oil Group in Thoothukudi. Energen is setting up a 1200 MW coal fired thermal power plant in the district. The group is one of the top suppliers of imported coal to leading power producers in India like Tata, Reliance, Torrent Power, Gujarat Electricity Board, Maharashtra State Electricity Board and Calcutta Electric.
In Ramanathapuram district, the house of one Hameed Khan at Keelakarai was raided. A cashier at ETA Star Group company in Dubai, he had come down for a holiday. A 10-member team led by Madurai Chief I-T Commissioner Ajay Rathore Singh carried out the raid for over seven hours at the house on Ahmed Street. The team sealed some rooms and seized documents before detaining Hameed for enquiry.
Buhari Group and its associates have footprints across the globe in diversified fields like property and construction, engineering, materials, services, energy, shipping, retailing and trading, with a workforce exceeding 1,00,000 people. Further, I-T sources said raids were also conduted at the premises of the group in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. A total of 450 personnel are involved in one of the raids, which is still going on.