I-T raids 25 locations linked to Bihar bizman

PATNA: Income Tax (I-T) department sleuths conducted raids at 25 locations linked to a prominent businessman, including his residence in Begusarai and detected indiscriminating documents related to undisclosed investments in real estate, officials said.

According to officials, the businessman, Ajay Kumar Singh alias Karu Singh, is said to be a close relative of a senior JD-U minister, and runs an iron-bar-making factory.

The searches come a day ahead of the key Opposition meeting scheduled to take place in Patna on Friday.

Singh owns KS Construction company, Iron factory, mining business in Odisha and is involved in state government related tender of water resources department and others, officials said.

The I-T teams carried out searches at Boring Road in Patna, Begusarai, Noida, Ghaziabad, Kolkata and Odisha.

The I-T sleuths first raided Karu’s residence located at Krisha Nagar locality under the jurisdiction of Town police station in Begusarai district amid tight security. Karu’s native at Matihani was also raided.

An IT official familiar with the matter said that the teams recovered incriminating documents, bank accounts, documents related to financial activities, land deeds and other important evidences.

“The team has scanned the seized documents. As per preliminary investigation, ₹50 crore tax evasion has been detected during the search. Seized documents hinted at undisclosed investments by some senior government officials besides party functionary who has invested their black money,” the official said.

JD(U) claimed that the raid was conducted on Centre’s direction ahead of the Opposition parties’ meeting. “Some officials are raiding the residence of one of my close relatives in Begusarai. He pays the highest tax, I don’t know why officials have been sent there,” said JD-U senior leader and finance minister Vijay Chaudhary.