I-T raids hawala traders and linked businesses

The Income Tax Department conducted multiple raids on hawala traders and businesses linked to them in Mumbai, Nagpur, Kanpur, and Ahmedabad in the early hours of Wednesday.

Nagpur-based L7 Group chairman Ravi Agarwal’s offices and residences were amongst the 27 places raided by the 150 officers drawn from the Delhi and Mumbai zones for unaccounted income, tax evasion and financial irregularities.

"Taxes worth nearly 700 Cr evaded"

“The group has been evading taxes to the tune of several hundred crores,” an I-T official said, confirming the raids on L7 Group.

The L7 Group, established in 1974, has interests in construction, finance, media, software, steel and food processing sectors and proclaims to be a debt-free company.

Alleged hawala traders identified

Alleged hawala traders Lala Jain, Paras Jain, Shailesh Lakhotia, Israel Seth, Hemant Tanna, Karani Thawrani and CA Ravi Wankhede were also on the radars of the Enforcement Directorate for dubious trades laundering money through shell companies. The taxman also raided prominent transporter and Tajabad Trust chairman Pyare Khan.

'Dabba trading'

In 2016 the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had raided L7 Group premises over a suspected network of illegal interstate ‘dabba trade’ – or informal trade taking place outside of the purview of the stock exchanges. Dabba trading is unregulated gambling centred around stock price movements.