Income-Tax raids in offices of ETA, Buhari groups

A 750-member team of officials raided more than 76 places owned by UAE based ETA Star Group and Buhari Group in the city and in other places across the State. In Chennai, the raids which commenced at 6 am, is expected to continue until Thursday. 

However, no seizures of cash or documents occurred on day one.   A senior I-T official said the raids were conducted as these business establishments had evaded tax and the officials were checking on several of their ‘property transactions.’ In the city, the raids were conducted at a residence, alleged to be the house of the owners of Buhari Group on College Road in Nungambakkam. 

A team also searched the office of ETA Star, located in the fourth floor of Citi Centre  in Mylapore. Officials also raided the Crescent Engineering College in Vandalur and also at a private company in Saligramam. 

A separate team also raided an apartment in R A Puram where the General Manager, identified as Sivakumar and said to be the general manager of an electrical company owned by the ETA Group. Speaking to DTNext, a senior I-T official said that the raid took place on information that the business groups were evading tax. The officials are looking into documents of property transactions of the two business groups. 

Raids were also conducted simultaneously in Thoothukudi and Keelakarai. The Buhari and ETA groups have interests in construction, power, trading, engineering, real estate and shipping. An I-T source said raids were also conducted in Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi Hyderabad and Bengaluru on the premises of business establishments owned by the two groups.