4 I-T teams visit India Cements office

KOLKATA/CHENNAI/HYDERABAD/CHANDIGARH/BANGALORE: The IPL probe is widening by the way. Taxmen swooped down on five cities on Wednesday, including the offices of the Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad.
While director, investigations, Desh Deepak Goel refused to give any details, other sources confirmed to TOI that the survey party, comprising nearly a dozen officials from the Hyderabad I-T office, took away all documents pertaining to the Hyderabad franchisee.
IT officials said the operations focused on Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures Ltd (DCSVL), promoted by media baron T Venkattram Reddy’s Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL). ‘‘This is a survey and therefore limited to the business premises. If it were a search operation, the residences of the owners of Deccan Chargers could have seen physical presence of our men,’’ an IT official said. IT sources did not rule out the possibility of scrutinizing documents of Deccan Chronicle Holding Ltd (DCHL) if needed.
In Chandigarh, the I-T department launched criminal proceedings against the owners of Kings XI, KPH Dreams Projects Pvt Ltd. Acting on the criminal complaint moved by registrar of companies (ROC), chief judicial magistrate Raj Singh issued notices to Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and Karan Pal while fixing July 24 as the next date of hearing.
Notably, the criminal proceedings followed as the promoters defaulted on submitting the annual returns and balance sheets of the company. The KPH Dream Projects Pvt Ltd, an IPL franchisee and owner of Kings XI, was registered with ROC in March 2008.
‘‘The company not only defaulted in submitting annual returns and balance sheets, but also wilfully avoided notices over past two years. Hence we were left with no option other than initiating criminal prosecution against them,’’ said an ROC official.