Panama Papers: I-T raids on several locations in Delhi-NCR

The Income Tax (I-T) Department on Tuesday conducted searches at over 25 locations in Delhi and the National Capital Region in connection with its tax evasion probe into the Panama Papers leak cases.

The I-T teams swooped down on three business groups, which had interests in metals and food processing, financial services and tyres, officials said.

The department recovered about Rs 4 crore and jewellery during the searches in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Faridabad, sources said, adding that several documents, computer hard discs and CDs were seized.

The names and links of the business groups had featured in the Panama Papers and it was detected that these entities were "highly suppressing" their actual turnover and income, they said.

At least 25 locations in Delhi-NCR were covered during the search-and-survey operations, the sources added.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which frames the policies of the I-T department, had recently said that the probe into the Panama Papers leak cases had led to the detection of an undisclosed wealth of Rs 792 crore and that the probe was on in "full swing".

Over a year after the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) made the documents public, the CBDT had said it had found 147 of a total of 426 cases "actionable".

The Panama Papers contained brief particulars of 426 Indians and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs).

The Centre had constituted a multi-agency group (MAG) of investigating agencies in April last year to probe these instances.

The MAG has so far submitted seven reports to the Centre.