RANCHI: The Income Tax Department Saturday conducted searches at multiple locations in poll-bound Jharkhand, including on the premises of a person linked to Chief Minister Hemant Soren, as part of a tax evasion probe, official sources said.

A total of nine premises in state capital Ranchi and Jamshedpur are being raided in an operation that started early morning. A security team of the CRPF is assisting the I-T teams, the sources said.

The locations linked to Sunil Shrivastava, an advisor to the CM, are also being searched, they said.

The action is linked to recent investigations launched by the ED and the CBI over alleged illegal liquor trade and mining in the state, the sources said.

The state is scheduled to votes in two phase on November 13 and November 20.