IT Sleuths Claim ‘Incriminating Evidence’ against Kolkata Knight Riders
Income Tax sleuths conducting search operations at the offices of the Bengal Cricket Association and Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders in the morning have claimed that they found ‘incriminating evidence’ of irregularities, reported IANS.
“We have found incriminating evidence. We will investigate further. We needed to have a look at certain transactions and we’ve found whatever we were looking for,” Indian Revenue Service Deputy Director Akhilendu Jadhav, was quoted as saying.
Officials said that the main angel of the probe into the IPL franchises that IT sleuths were looking into was the legality of money transfers from tax havens abroad, specifically Mauritius.
They said that the Directorate of Enforcement was investigating the legitimacy of transactions between the franchise and the state’s cricket board, said report.
According to reports, search operations at both the board’s office at the Eden Gardens stadium and the premises of Kolkata Knight Riders and its parent Red Chillies Entertainment of actor Shah Rukh Khan at ITC Sonar Bangla and Shakespeare Sarani started at 3 pm Wednesday.
Broadening the probe into the financial deals of the IPL on Wednesday, the federal revenue department conducted search operations on three of its event management and broadcast firms in Mumbai, apart from the franchises.
The 10 franchises under scrutiny are Kochi’s Rendezvous Sports, Pune’s Sahara group, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab.
(Based on internet reports)
