Income tax dept raids former BSP MLA Zulfikar Bhutto, unearths tax evasion of Rs 100 crore

Teams of 160 officers and officials searched 45 locations across the country including Zulfikar Ahmed Bhutto's Agra residence, HMA Group's partners, employees, factories, offices, and residences.

Agra (UP): The Income Tax Department on Tuesday night raided former BSP MLA and meat exporter Zulfikar Ahmed Bhutto's HMA Group and found tax evasion of around Rs 100 crore. The raids conducted by the I-T Department's Investigation Wing started Saturday morning and lasted till 11 pm.

Teams of 160 officers and officials searched 45 locations across the country including Zulfikar Ahmed Bhutto's Agra residence, HMA Group's partners, employees, factories, offices, and residences. It was the second major success of the Income Tax Department. Undisclosed income of Rs 101 crore was surrendered 4 years ago in a raid on BNR Group of Agra.

At around 8 am, teams of Income Tax Department of Delhi, Noida, Agra, Kanpur and Lucknow reached Zulfikar's residence, his brother's, and relative's residence, factory, slaughterhouse, and head office of HMA Group and the Income Tax Department simultaneously investigated 35 locations in 12 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Unnao, Chandigarh, Meerut, Raipur, and 18 places in Agra.

The Income Tax Department seized digital evidence from computers, hard disks, mobiles, and other electronic gadgets along with records of income, expenditure, and stocks from all the raided locations.

The probe revealed transactions worth crores of rupees from a daily wage worker, Israr Ahmed's bank account and the department found 14 other employees with crores in their bank accounts. The country's third largest meat exporter group HMA has a turnover of Rs 2000 crore and exports frozen meat to 40 countries.