The Income Tax (IT) Department's raid at Trident Group in Ludhiana has been continuing for the past three days. The Income Tax (IT) Department on Tuesday conducted raids on Punjab's two biggest business houses- Trident Group and Cremica in Ludhiana. The IT raid was also carried out at the Budhni plant of Trident located in Madhya Pradesh. 35 teams of IT sleuths carried out raids in multiple states linked to the Trident Group including its main office in Ludhiana. On Wednesday it was reported that the IT raid at Trident Group is expected to continue for five to six days, slowly and steadily reason why Padma Shri Rajinder Gupta came under the central agency's scanner is coming to the fore. It is worth mentioning a particular group is seeing the IT raids at Trident Group through a political prism and hence it is expected that more high-profile business houses of Punjab may come under central agencies' radar.
More business-houses may come on Central Agencies radar
Talking about the political prism, it can be understood by the fact that Trident's chairman Rajinder Gupta had also served as the vice-chairperson of the Planning Board previously. After the AAP government came into power, the Planning Board was dissolved and replaced with the State Economic Policy and Planning Board. It is said that Padma Shri Rajinder Gupta's relationship with every party is cordial, but ever since the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in Punjab he shared a much closer relationship with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
It is pertinent to mention here that when Himachal Pradesh State Elections were underway, the central agencies had raided multiple locations including in Punjab. The Central government is already at loggerheads with the Aam Aadmi Party and has accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led government of passing Delhi's new liquor policy so that private parties could fund the election campaign in Punjab and other states.
Since, there are multiple state elections on the cards, and also the most important 2024 General Elections, it seems like the central agencies have become in proactive mode.
It is pertinent to mention here that Delhi CM Kejriwal attended a meeting with Punjab industrialists in Amritsar in September 2023. At the townhall meeting, AAP Supremo Arvind Kejriwal, had said that the previous governments used to see industrialists with "shak ki nigah" (eye of suspicion) and always think how much they can milk them, but the present government considers them "our partners".
Therefore, it is suspected that more business houses of Punjab may come under central agencies' radar in the upcoming days.
IT raid Trident Group Ludhiana Update
As per reports, the IT team questioned at least 200 officials and employees of the Trident group. Not only this, the IT sleuths reportedly have kept their smartphones along with them and continue to search and seize papers of interest.
Reports suggest that on the first day of the IT raid, multiple lockers were sealed. Before this, the IT team confiscated documents of many properties. The details of all the lockers are being taken from the family. The mobile phones of the family members are also with the authorities.
Furthermore, the IT team is also taking details of the new properties purchased by the company (Trident) in 2022 and 2023. Apart from this, Income Tax is also keeping an eye on the property purchased by the company in the last five years. For this, account details of senior officials of the company and data on properties purchased by them are also being collected.
What IT is trying to find from Trident Group?
The Income Tax team looking for irregularities in the balance sheet and is currently checking whether there is any manipulation or irregularity in the balance sheet presented by the company every quarter, half year, and annually. At present no one is allowed to meet Trident Group owner Rajindra Gupta. Trident Group operates in the sectors of yarn, home textile, paper, stationery, chemicals, and adaptive power.