The Income Tax department has searched the office premises of several food and beverage companies in Mumbai, including one linked to actor Shilpa Shetty, over allegations of tax evasion, official sources said on Thursday.
They said around 20-24 properties in and around Mumbai have been raided since Wednesday after the ministry received “actionable” inputs against certain companies in the sector allegedly engaged in “off-the-books” or cash transactions.
Sources said the searches involved some office premises of the restaurant, which is co-owned by Shetty and some others. They denied that her house in Mumbai was raided by the revenue official.
Revenue officials said the IT probe was not linked to the Maharashtra police’s FIR against Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra (on charges of fraud) or the one registered by the Bengaluru police against a local restaurant for allegedly operating after legal hours.
The Bengaluru restaurant is said to be co-owned by Shetty.
On Wednesday, Mumbai police’s Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) filed a charge of cheating against the high-profile couple in addition to criminal breach of trust.
According to the official, a case was earlier registered under IPC section 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) against the celebrity couple and section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing transfer of property) was added after investigation.
However, Shetty and her husband issued a statement on social media categorically denying the allegations against them, saying they were “fully cooperative” with the investigation and sanguine.
They said that justice will prevail and they have full confidence in the country’s law enforcement agencies and judicial system.
“We categorically deny that baseless and motivated allegations are being spread. The issues we want to raise are given a criminal color without any legal basis,” he said in the post.
“A quashing application has already been filed in the Hon’ble High Court and the verdict is awaited. As we have fully cooperated with the investigation, we are confident that justice will prevail and we have full confidence in the law enforcement agencies and the Indian judiciary. We respectfully request the media to exercise restraint as this is a sub-judicial proceeding.” Kundra said further.
