Income tax raids corporator's house

PUNE: Sleuths from the income tax (investigation) directorate on Wednesday raided the residential and business premises of senior Congress corporator Ulhas alias Aba Bagul on charges of alleged suppression of income.
Director of income tax, AJ Khan when contacted, said the department officials have seized Rs 15 lakh in cash and gold ornaments valuables, besides other incriminating documents, including property-related papers.A relative of Bagul was also rounded up by the IT officials for questioning, but later released in the day.
The raids, which started early morning at 7 am and continued well past noon, are also being carried out on the premises of two city-based builders who have business interests with Bagul, Khan told TNN.
Bagul, who was at his residence at Shivadarshan near Parvati, when the IT officials raided at 7 am, later told journalists that the raids were a conspiracy, planted by his political rivals.
"The Rs 15 lakh found was part of the collection done by me to send some people from my area to visit holy shrines like Kashi," Bagul said, adding that he has been sending people on such trips for the last couple of years regularly. "I have showed them railway tickets worth Rs 7.5 lakh which were to be distributed in the next few days," he said.
While Khan said a clearer picture would emerge only on Thursday after proper scrutiny of all the documents, he admitted the raids were carried out following complaints from "sources" against the corporator.
"We carried out a preliminary check of Bagul''s book of accounts which indicated that he might be involved in not showing his actual income," IT officials said, adding that efforts are also on to check the corporator''s bank lockers and others places before a case can be registered on charges of suppression of accounts.
The IT (investigation) director, however, clarified that the raids does not have any connection to a transfer of development rights (TDR) racket, currently being investigated by the directorate.