Sleuths from the Income Tax Department on Thursday conducted simultaneous search and seizure operations at the leading coffee chain from the city, Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), sources confirmed.

Shares of Coffee Day Enterprises, which runs the Cafe Coffee Day chain, were trading down 3.76 per cent or Rs 9.10 at Rs 232.80 on the BSE at about 11.30 am. The stock fell 7.46 per cent to intra-day low of Rs 223.85 before recovering partially.

The search operations are still on at the CCD head office in UB City, Vittal Mallya Road. The cafe chain is founded and owned by V.G. Siddharth, son-in-law of former Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna, who recently joined BJP.

Sources said that search operations were on at multiple locations and had covered all other businesses in which Mr. Siddharth had interests in, including hospitality, coffee plantation, and consultancy.

Income Tax department sleuths said that the search operations were conducted in relation to a new case to verify if there was any undisclosed income and not related to any of the past cases.

Hassan/Chikkamagaluru Correspondent adds:

The Income Tax officials raided offices and properties of Mr. Siddhartha in Hassan and Chikkamagaluru districts. The CCD group runs The Serai Resorts in Chikkamgaluru and has the global office of Cafe Coffee Day in Chikkamgaluru, besides a curing centre in Hassan.

Local police have been deployed at the entrances of the resort and offices on Mudigere Road in Chikkamagaluru and curing centre on Belur Road in Hassan. Officials from Hassan and Mysuru are said to have been involved in the search operations.

(This news report was first published in The Hindu)