To trap NRI investments in land and real estate, the Surat Income-Tax Offices Department of Investigation conducted a raid in 40 locations in Vyara and Bardoli towns and in five locations in Surat. The I-T department is expecting the Wednesday raid to lead them to track untaxed income worth crores of rupees.

The raids in the offices and residences of Vyara and Bardoli builders Ashok Shah, Jagdish Kanchwala, Nayan Tarsaria, Ramesh Tailor and the Buman Group and Mukund Group had led to interesting finds about NRI investments routed through third parties for buying flats and bungalows around Vyara and Bardoli.
 
I-T officials are also questioning certain farmers in the region who are learnt to have made land investments worth crores of rupees in the past few months. Documents, computer hard disks and CDs were seized from the offices of the builders. Three offices of builders in Surat were also raided.

Currently we are interrogating five builders in this connection and expect to get interesting details. So far we believe we may recover at least 20 crore rupees worth of untaxed income routed through third parties by NRIs, said a senior official of the I-T department.

The raid will continue on Thursday in some more locations in Surat city based on more leads received by the I-T department. Police and I-T officials are also expected to check some NRI properties in Vyara and Bardoli. Most of these properties are bungalows that are known to be rented out. We will check where the rent for these properties is being deposited, a senior official said.