I-T searches on at Embassy Group premises for alleged tax evasion

File image of the Embassy Office Parks building. (Representative Image)

The income tax (I-T) department is searching premises linked to Embassy Group in Bengaluru and Gurugram for alleged tax evasion, CNBC-TV18 reported on June 1.

The department was also searching Indiabulls Realty’s premises in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) area following the real estate company’s merger with Embassy, the channel added.

While details are awaited, Embassy Group said it is a “routine income tax inquiry”. “Embassy Group has always acted and will continue to act in accordance with the provisions of all applicable laws and regulations, while maintaining the highest standards of corporate governance. We have extended our complete compliance to the relevant authorities. We would like to assure our stakeholders that business continues as usual,” the real estate group said.

This is not the first corporate biggie to face I-T scrutiny. The department has been busy since March.

On March 22, officials raided offices of the Hiranandani Group at 24 locations in Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru, including a senior official’s residence, for 24 hours.

From March 23-29, I-T officials raided about 25 premises of Hero MotoCorp. They searched the offices and residences of senior management, including those of Hero MotoCorp Chairman and MD Pawan Munjal, in Delhi, Gurugram and other parts of north India.

On March 20, officials said they had detected undisclosed income of about Rs 224 crore after it recently raided a pan-India unicorn start-up group , based in Pune and Thane in Maharashtra, involved in wholesale and retail of construction materials.

From March 9 to 12, I-T officials also raided offices of Infra.Market, one of India's fastest growing unicorns and the residences of its Mumbai-based founders Souvik Sengupta and Aaditya Sharda.

However, the 72-hour search, spread across Thane, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Noida, however, yielded little. Two people told Moneycontrol that several startups have received notices from the tax department during that fortnight.

On May 26, I-T raids were carried on 35 premises across Gujarat including those of Asian Granito. The action came days after the company completed land acquisition for all three of its greenfield manufacturing plants in Morbi, Gujarat.