HYDERABAD: The Income Tax sleuths on Thursday raided the offices of a Hyderabad-based engineering company, at various places in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, in connection with money laundering during demonetisation drive.Raids were conducted simultaneously at three locations in the Telugu states, and 40 persons were detained for alleged irregular money transactions, sources said.
Sources said that a political leader, who has some shares in the engineering company that acquired projects from both the Telugu states and also from Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka and Guajrat was under the radar for the last two months for his financial transactions and property purchase in a very posh locality in Hyderabad.
The officials also detained 40 persons from Andhra Pradesh, whose used to deposit huge amounts during demonetisation period. However, the department is still checking the veracity of the money deposits to get strong evidence against the lenders. Most of the detainees were into aqua and agri related businessess, said sources close to the department. Sources also said that a political leader involved in the fraud has collected the Aadhaar cards of a few farmers and obtained PAN cards on their names to open bank accounts without their knowledge and then deposited money in their accounts.