A seven-member-team of the income tax department's investigation wing visited the offices of the Cricket Association of Bengal and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) here on Wednesday as part of the on-going nationwide probe into alleged financial irregularities in the Indian Premier League.
I-T officials also simultaneously surveyed the offices of Red Chillies Entertainment – the company that promotes the KKR – at the Eden Gardens and Gameplan – a sports management group that looks after the KKR's affairs – at a posh locality in the southern part of the city.
Several IPL team offices across the country were also surveyed during the day.
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The officers were seen going through piles of files and documents – some of them even retrieved from the dustbin. There was no senior CAB official present.
Though the officers refused to divulge any detail, they said that they were looking for documents on financial transactions between the KKR and the Cricket Association of Bengal .
The leader of the I-T team said that there had been attempts at destroying several documents.
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The torn-up document of money transaction between the KKR and a company named Carving Dreams was put back together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Among the papers collected by the team was a personal diary of the KKR's venue manager, photocopied documents of the expenses incurred by the team and a laminated map of a plot of land in the Rajarhat area that is located in the outskirts of the city.
Meanwhile, a press conference earlier called by CAB chief Jagmohan Dalmiya was postponed due to the I-T survey.
Chennai Special Correspondent reports:
In Chennai, about 20 Income Tax officers conducted a ‘survey' at the premises of India Cements, owners of Chennai Super Kings.
An I-T official said: “It is too early to say what the survey came up with. It is not a raid, but a document-based investigation. We are trying to ascertain the source of funds. The results would be based on the documents we get from them.”