New Delhi sources have made a statement that the Income Tax Department today said it has attached an Rs 1,200 crore worth property of the Gitanjali group, located in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Hyderabad, in connection with its tax evasion probe. Meanwhile the officials said the property has been provisionally attached under the Income Tax law and the action was taken to "recover outstanding tax demands".
Further they said the valuation of the property, in the SEZ at Rs 1,200 crore, has been done by the assessee and the department has put up a notice on the property. Moreover the department, in the last few days, has similarly attached nine bank accounts and seven properties of the group and Choksi.
Previously the department had first raided
billionaire diamond jeweler Nirav Modi in January last year on charges of
alleged tax evasion and had also surveyed Gitanjali Gems promoter Choksi's
businesses. Accordingly Modi, Choksi and others are being investigated by
multiple probe agencies after it recently came to light, following a complaint
by the Punjab National Bank (PNB), that they allegedly cheated the bank to the
tune of Rs 114 billion, with the purported involvement of a few employees of
the bank.
