I-T dept searches premises of media baron Raghav Bahl

New Delhi: The Income Tax Department Thursday searched the premises of media baron Raghav Bahl in connection with a case of alleged tax evasion, officials said.

A team of I-T sleuths raided Bahl's premises in Noida early morning and are looking for documents and other evidence related to a case of "bogus long term capital gains (LTCG) received by various beneficiaries", they said.

Bahl, who was in Mumbai, said in a statement that he was on his way to Delhi and his wife and mother were confined to the residence and not allowed to speak to anybody.

"I have got little else to go on right now," he said in a statement to the media.

Apart from Bahl, three other "beneficiaries" and professionals, J Lalwani, Anoop Jain and Abhimanyu, are also being searched as part of the same action, officials said. Officials said their business links to offshore entities are being investigated.

LTCG is broadly defined as the tax paid on profit generated by an asset such as real estate, shares or share-oriented products held for a particular time-frame.

In a statement to Editor’s Guild, Raghav Bahl said, “I have a matter of great concern to share with the Guild. While I was in Mumbai this morning, dozens of I-T officials descended on my residence and The Quint's office for a 'survey'."

“We are a fully tax compliant entity, and will provide all access to all appropriate financial documents,” Bahl added.

Bahl on the I-T raids said that he had spoken to the officer on his premises and requested him not to try and pick up or see any mail and document that was likely to contain very serious, sensitive journalistic material.

Bahl is the founder of the Quint news portal and the Network18 group and is a known media entrepreneur.