HYDERABAD: Income Tax (I-T) department officials conducted searches at 14 locations associated with various chit fund agencies and real estate firms in Hyderabad on Thursday. Officials suspect that these firms may have engaged in tax evasion. Sources said the firms have been irregular with their record-keeping and violated several I-T rules. Officials began the searches at 5 a.m. and continued them late on Thursday.
Sources said the owners and businessmen associated with these companies have close ties to relatives of BRS city president and Jubilee Hills MLA Maganti Gopinath. Furthermore, the searches, which have taken place before the issuance of election notifications, have sparked heated discussions within the BRS as the companies are linked to Maganti’s relatives.
Official sources revealed that these chit funds and real estate firms have been under scrutiny for the past two financial years due to alleged investments and fund diversion into other businesses. Agency officials are reviewing all financial documents, including regular ledger books, account records, chit-fund maintenance logs, commission reports and I-T filings.
Twenty teams of agency officials carried out searches at residences and offices connected to Puja Krishna Chit Fund, Jeevan Shakti Chief Fund, businessman Arikepudi Koteswar Rao, Maganti Varjanath, railway contractor Vara Prasad, eCommerce company owner Raghu Veer, Datla Ravi, Naga Rajeswari, Krishna Prasad, Puja Lakshmi, and others, situated in Kukatpally, Shamshabad, and other areas.
According to sources, the agency officials have issued notices to the directors and MDs of the chit funds to appear before the agency in connection with violations of I-T rules and allegations of tax evasion.
The officials have also seized account books and hard disks, including backend account books that were not disclosed in the I-T returns. Teams of officials from the I-T departments of Chennai, Bengaluru and Odisha jointly conducted these searches, and they are expected to continue until Friday afternoon.