The Income Tax department sleuths on Wednesday launched raids on the offices of pharma major Hetero Drugs on a tip off about large scale evasion of income tax over the few years.
Hetero Drugs is promoted by B Parthasarathy Reddy, who is said to be close business partner of YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
He is one of the accused in the quid pro quo case involving Jagan, being probed by the CBI since 2012. The CBI, in its charge sheet filed in the court, charged Parthasarathy Reddy with investing in Jagan’s companies in return to the favours granted by the AP government during Y S Rajasekhar Reddy regime.
After Jagan came to power in 2019, he granted a contract of developing over 400 schools to Parthasarathy Reddy under Nadu-Nedu scheme, besides also making him a member of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams trust board.
According to I-T department sources, a few batches of officials have been conducting simultaneous raids since morning on the offices of Hetero Drugs, including the pharma manufacturing unit at Jeedimetla and Sanathnagar, where the company has been manufacturing Covid-19 related drugs.
The sleuths also conducted the residences of Hetero Drugs directors and CEO. Searches are also going on at three other places, apart from Hyderabad. It is not exactly known whether the I-T raids were based on any complaint or on the information gathered by them.
A few days ago, the I-T department conducted raids on the offices of Ramky Group and residences of its directors. The Ramky Group is also one of the beneficiaries of Jagan.
The I-T department said all the details of the searches would be disclosed once the process is completed by evening.
