Transactions of two realtors under I-T lens

Hyderabad: The income-tax department raided two top real estate firms — Vasavi and Sumadhura — in the city on Wednesday.

While the two firms have aggressively been launching projects individually, they had recently formed a joint venture and announced what they claimed was an iconic project, Olympus, 44-storey residential towers, in the upmarket Financial District.

Sumadhura has operations in Bengaluru apart from in the twin cities while Vasavi is known for announcing various projects and pre-launch sales. Some of Vasavi’s projects, however, suffer from delays.

Sources said the I-T sleuths from Bengaluru had conducted simultaneous raids in at least 20 locations belonging to both the companies. They had been inquiring into the inward and outward remittances.

Significantly, the promoters of both the companies have a rags-to-riches story. While one started out with a grocery store, the other was a bus conductor.

Vasavi has more than half a dozen projects in different stages of construction while it entered into development agreements for other projects. Recently, Vasavi succeeded in bagging a huge chunk of land from the Hinduja-owned IDL in Kukatpally, following the decision of the state government to allow change of land use and permit constructions in land that was originally meant for industrial purpose.

Recently, a senior minister, citing the example of Sahiti Constructions, is said to have warned the promoters against pre-launch sales and collection of money from the customers. He sought to distance himself from the company with prior knowledge of impending I-T raids.

The raids gained significance as they were held just two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a clarion call to end corruption and family rule.