I-T raids on realty company lead to CM’s adviser

BENGALURU: The income tax department, which is tracking multiple cases relating to real estate and fund management firm Assetz, on Thursday concluded a three-day search operation which took place at 41 premises belonging to the company.

During the search conducted by a 60-member team at 35 properties in Bengaluru, four in Mumbai and one each in Chennai and Hyderabad, officials allegedly found transaction details linking Assetz to HB Sunil, a chartered accountant, who, incidentally, is an adviser to chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s family and private businesses.

Assetz declined to respond to TOI’s email queries.

Tax officials said they had found several other transaction details during the search and that Sunil was not the only outsider linked with Assetz. On what prompted the search operation, a senior official said: “We’ve been tracking the company for long and found some suspicious activity that prompted the search. We questioned Sunil based on details obtained during the search at Assetz. He is not the only such person (to be questioned).”


No political link found so far: I-T DG

Director general (income tax investigations) and principal chief income tax commissioner BR Balakrishnan confirmed the searches on Assetz, but denied speculation of a political angle to the operation. “So far, we’ve found no political links. We’ve questioned Sunil based on what we found at Assetz, and searched his premises. That there is a political link is a media speculation,” Balakrishnan said.

That Sunil advises Kumaraswamy’s family has led to speculation about the search eventually leading to the doors of the chief minister, his family or aides. An aide close to Kumaraswamy said Sunil is only an adviser to the family and he has not been retained in any official capacity by the family or any of its businesses.

Sunil’s name had also surfaced in the run-up to the assembly polls, when the I-T department had conducted searches on several aides of the CM in many districts.

Singapore-headquartered Assetz was founded in 2006 and has over 10 million square feet under development. It has four business verticals: commercial, residential, warehousing and fund management. Ben Salmon, the group CEO and partner, is one of the cofounders of Assetz. Salmon, CFO Jagannath Shetty and Akshay Dewani are the three stakeholders.