Income tax officials raid offices of mining firm VV Minerals, its owner in Tamil Nadu, Andhra

Income tax officials raided offices of VV Minerals and homes of relatives of company owner S Vaikundarajan. The raids were spread across five cities and more than 100 locations.

Officials of the income tax department on Thursday were conducting searches at VV Minerals, India’s largest miner and exporter of rare earth minerals, and its owner S Vaikundarajan at more than 100 locations in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh over allegations of tax evasion.

The Income Tax office near ITO in New Delhi (Pradeep Gaur/ Mint File Photo)

Raids were being conducted at the offices of the company in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Karaikal and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The homes of Vaikundarajan’s relatives and his company’s employees were also being searched.

More than 500 tax officials are reported to be part of the raid, which is expected to go on till Friday.

Transworld Garnet India (TGI) Private Limited, an arm of VV Minerals which silicate minerals, located in the special economic zone (SEZ) at Duvva in Visakhapatnam also came under I-T scanner as an extension of a spate of raids on the parent company.

Around 50 teams from the department raided TGI and conducted search operations in a pre-dawn swoop, it is learnt.

The officials also conducted search operations on the premises of a leading tax auditor engaged by the VV Minerals in MVP Colony of Visakhapatnam city, besides some realtors. They refused to comment on the searches.

Vaikundarajan also owns an engineering college and a regional news organisation.