Hyderabad: The income-tax department conducted searches at real estate firms and hospitality companies including two Chennai-based groups, Adityaram, which has a presence in the city, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and Ambalal Real Estate.
One hundred 100 I-T officials in 60 teams and simultaneously carried out the searches at different locations, sources said. The searches were conducted to verify if the companies had avoided tax.
Sources said the officials checked the bank statements and property sale and purchase details of the Adityaram group. The group companies include Adityaram Properties (P) Ltd, Adityaram Studios (P) Ltd, Adityaram Movies, Adityaram Housing (P) Ltd, Adityaram Infrastructure Projects LLP, and Adityaram Convention and Resorts.
The Adityaram Group has dealings with Tollywood after having backed several films in Telangana including ‘Sandade Sandadi’ and ‘Kushi Kushiga’ starring Jagapathi Babu and Rajendra Prasad. The group also produced the film ‘Ek Niranjan’ starring Prabhas.
The I-T officials questioned the accounts officers of Adityaram offices located in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and Tami Nadu over I-T returns and source of income in investing in open plots. I-T officials suspected that the real estate firm allegedly collected cash from customers and transacted the money using hawala.
Similar raids also carried out on Ashok Hotels, Ambalal Real Estate and Radiance Realty in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on alleged tax evasion.
