IT officials 'beaten up' during raid at oil mill owner's house

Officials of the Income Tax Department (ITD) were allegedly assaulted while carrying out a raid at the house of an oil mill owner in Morena town of Madhya Pradesh, police said.

Police registered a first information report (FIR) against Govind Bansal, the owner of Surajbhan Oil Mill here, and three members of his family Thursday.

The ITD team has been carrying out searches at the Bansal family's house in Jiwajiganj area and other properties since Tuesday for suspected tax evasion, police said.

Superintendent of Police Amit Sanghi said the FIR was registered on the complaint of Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax Vikram Pagharia who was heading the ITD team.

Pagharia alleged in the complaint that he and other officials were abused and beaten up by Govind Bansal, Surajbhan Bansal, Vishnu Bansal and another person.

"The case was registered at Kotwali Police Station against them for abusing and assaulting the officials and obstructing official work," the SP said.

All four accused are absconding, he added.

Pagharia alleged that the ITD team was attacked by Bansal and others when the officials were seizing documents related to illegal transactions and benami properties besides jewellery worth Rs 60 lakh and some cash.

The accused tried to snatch away the documents, cash and jewellery from the officials, he claimed.

They even tore his clothes, he said in the complaint.

The ITD team found over a thousand pages of documents related to suspected tax evasion and benami properties, he said.

The searches were continuing Thursday, officials said.