Taxmen swoop down on three business houses

BANGALORE: Income-Tax sleuths raided three business houses in Bangalore on Friday morning — two hotel groups, and a hatchery-and-real estate business.

These are MRG Group of Hotels, which owns Gold Finch hotel, Nandhini Deluxe Group and Golden Hatcheries Group, which is into hatcheries and real estate business.

The raids began around 7 am and were conducted simultaneously on 20 premises. Along with the group promoters , some people who had invested in these businesses were also raided . Congress leader from Byatarayanapura N Chakrapani’s house was also raided for his investments in one of these groups, officials of the Income Tax department said.

The raids continued till late into the evening, where officials examined various documents pertaining to investments and estimated the value of assets of the raided persons.

“We’ll begin compiling details and it will take a day or two to get complete details on I-T evasion, if any,’’ said a senior official.

THE RAIDED

MRG group chairman and managing director K Prakash Shetty owns both Gold Finch and Banjara Restaurant Group. He’s been in the hotel business for the past 10 years and the recent blockbuster ‘Mungaru Male’ was shot in his Sakaleshpur house Nandhini Deluxe Group is owned by N Anand, who originally started the Nandhini chain of restaurants with a partner.

After the partners parted ways, Anand headed the Nandini Deluxe Group, while his partner floated the Nandhini Palace Group. Kamal Pasha is the proprieter of Golden Hatcheries and also has a vast real estate business N Chakrapani, who recently crossed over to the Congress from JD(S), not a prime target of I-T sleuths, but they found his investments in one of the groups.