IT, GST teams carry out combined raids on meat traders in 3 districts of UP
According to officials, the companies are facing allegations of tax evasion, foreign exchange violations, and irregularities in export and packaging
Lucknow: The Income Tax (IT) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) teams carried out combined raids on meat traders in several locations in Hapur, Sambhal and Bareilly districts of Uttar Pradesh on Monday morning.
According to officials, the companies are facing allegations of tax evasion, foreign exchange violations, and irregularities in export and packaging.
In Sambhal, the IT team visited the homes and factories of brothers Haji Imran and Haji Irfan. Irfan owns Indian Frozen Foods. The brothers have a business worth ₹1,000 crore. The teams also raided the residences of four senior officials of the company.
In Bareilly, a raid was carried out on Shakeel Qureshi’s company, Marya Frozen. Shakeel Qureshi also owns the building from where India Frozen operates in Sambhal.
In Hapur, a raid was carried out at the residence of meat trader Haji Yasin, whose meat factory is located in Ghaziabad.
Also in Hapur, raids were conducted at the homes of businessman Aslam Qureshi and his lawyer Nitin Garg.
According to IT officials familiar with the matter, a team of about 200 employees, along with officers, is involved in the raids on meat traders.
The raid teams were accompanied by Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel in Sambhal, Bareilly, and Hapur for security reasons.
In Hapur, raids were carried out on three locations of meat trader Haji Yasin. He has an old home and office in Hapur and a business establishment in Ghaziabad.
Raids were also conducted at the home of grain trader Aslam Qureshi in Hapur.
Public Relation Officer (PRO) of the Mary Frozen, Ishaan Kumar, said that the raid teams arrived early in the morning. We don’t have much information, he added.
Employees were not allowed to leave the premises. When the team arrived in the morning, all employees were not allowed to leave the premises. The raids teams confiscated cell phones, computers, documents, and registers of employees.
Local police were unaware of the IT and GST raids in all the three districts. The teams arrived with PAC keeping the local police unaware.
The GST and IT teams from Delhi, Lucknow, and Moradabad are also involved in the raids.
The investigation is ongoing, and further action will be taken based on the findings.
The government has indicated that this is just the beginning of a larger crackdown on tax evasion and financial irregularities in the meat export industry.
