MP: 500 I-T Sleuths Continue Raid Operations At 50 Premises Of Som Group Ahead Of Elections

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Just ten days before the elections in Madhya Pradesh, the Income tax department raided the premises of Som Group (mainly in the business of distilleries and breweries) in poll bound Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on Tuesday. It is also learnt the premises of the group located in Maharashtra, Orissa and Karnataka were also covered in the raid.

Sources said the IT teams, which conducted simultaneous raids during dawn, included officials from Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Indore, Mumbai, Chhattisgarh and Kolkata. In Madhya Pradesh, the IT department covered the premises of the group spread in Bhopal, Raisen, Jabalpur and Indore.

Around 50 premises including the house of group owner Jagdish Arora have been covered under the raid. Large number of incriminating documents, suggesting possible tax evasion in large amounts, have been found in the raid and IT officials are going through the documents to ascertain the actual tax evasion.

The IT team’s included around 500 officials which conducted raids at different locations of Som Group. The IT officials also reached the houses of those persons who are closely associated with the group and conducted the search operation. A wine factory of Som Group situated in Bilaspur too faced the heat of the raid.

The raid is likely to continue for some days to ascertain how much tax evasion has been done by the group which is considered close to a Congress leader.

It was in the year 2021 as well that the IT department had carried out raids against the group whose turnover is in several hundred crores. Large number of cops were deployed at the premises during the raid. Some cash has been also found in the raid but the exact amount could not be ascertained.

Sources claimed that the IT department was keeping a close watch on the activities of the group for a long time.