MUMBAI, AUG 25: Income Tax officers conducted searches on nine premises of three groups of diamond exporters on Thursday night. The raids were on till late Friday evening. The premises include offices in Panchratna and Prasad Chambers, both buildings near Opera House being home to the gem industry.
Some residences at Walkeshwar and Napean Sea Road belonging to the exporters were also searched, sources said.
Twenty lockers have been sealed, a top I-T official said. Some of these were in private safe deposit vaults. The valuation of the gems is still on. The raids, sources said, provoked a furore when IT officers started their work at one of the vaults.
While officials of the investigation wing of the IT, which conducts raids, declined to name the exporters, trade sources revealed that among those searched were Prem Agarwal, Shekhar Shah, and Shantilal. The names of their firms, however, could not be confirmed.