Allahabad:
At least 20 Income Tax officials were on Tuesday injured when employees of a renowned private hospital attacked them during a raid to probe allegations of tax evasion against owners of the health centre.
"At least 20 officials were injured in the incident," Ajay Pratap Singh, Joint Director (Investigation), Income Tax Department, told reporters in Allahabad after the raid on Jeevan Jyoti hospital.
Employees of the hospital manhandled the officials and tried to prevent them from carrying out their work, he said.
"We have conducted raids at properties belonging to Dr A K Bansal and Dr Vandana Bansal, owners of the Jeevan Jyoti Hospital, against whom we have received allegations of tax evasion," he said.
"Raids have been conducted at 15 places, 13 of them in Allahabad itself and one each in Gorakhpur and Delhi," he said.
He said 15 teams comprising I-T sleuths from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand had been formed to conduct the raids which were carried out simultaneously.
"We have succeeded in achieving our purpose by taking computers and other documents at the hospital into our possession," he said.
Computers and documents were also seized from other properties of the Bansals, which include a nursing school in the vicinity of Jeevan Jyoti and a women's hospital in the Civil Lines locality, he said.
Replying to a query, Mr Singh said, "We will be lodging an FIR with the police against the hospital authorities who have been accused of manhandling the government officials and preventing them from discharging their duty, which is a grave crime."