Income tax officials raid realty major Phoenix

HYDERABAD: The income-tax department on Tuesday raided realty major Phoenix which had registered a meteoric rise, building lakhs of square feet of commercial space in the last five to six years.

Special teams had come from Mumbai and launched raids simultaneously at five locations belonging to the group including its corporate premises on Road No. 45, Jubilee Hills. Top sources told Deccan Chronicle that the raids were being conducted particularly with regard to a financial transaction between Phoenix and the Vasavi-Sumadhura joint venture which were raided a few days ago, over sale of land in Kukatpally.

Phoenix gained notoriety for owning prime lands which were earlier claimed by the state government or its agencies. The company was owned by Chukkapally Suresh who is currently the chairman emeritus while the show is run by the present chairman and managing director Gopi.

Gulf Oil-owned IDL in Kukatpally applied for change of land use from industry to commercial way back when Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy was the Chief Minister. The file was kept on hold for several years. In 2012, Gulf Oil entered into a joint development agreement with Hinduja Estates for developing more than 10 million sq ft in 76 acres owned by the former.

However, according to sources, the company had to sell land to several city-based developers at the instance of a senior minister in the state. In one such transaction in August 2021, it entered into sale agreement for 44 acres with Squarespace Infracity Pvt Ltd for `451 crore. Some directors of Squarespace were in the Phoenix group companies.

Ironically, land in Kokapet and other areas near Outer Ring Road were sold for more than `40 crore per acre at that time but the Hindujas sold it for just `10 crore per acre. It concluded sale of 32 acres for `327 crore in June last. The ownership of the company later changed hands and promoters of Vasavi, Sumadhura, R.S. Brothers, Big C Mobiles, Honour Homes and several others joined the company, as per the Registrar of Companies records.

The ownership of Squarespace later changed hands.

The I-T department also got crucial inputs on Phoenix's purchase of material used in construction and the department would do a thorough check to ascertain the genuineness of these transactions.