Five big facts about raids on Ponty Chadha

New Delhi: Around twenty properties owned by Uttar Pradesh's liquor baron Gurdeep Singh Chadha alias Ponty Chadha were raided on Wednesday by officials of the Income Tax department. Contrary to some reports in the media yesterday, no cash was recovered from his mall in Noida.

Here are five big facts about the raids:

1)Raid in Noida: Around 20 Income Tax sleuths swooped down on the Centre Stage mall located in the posh Sector 18 locality in Noida that is owned by Mr Chadha. On a tip-off, officials began searches at the basement of the mall. It is here - the first car park level to be precise - that they stumbled upon several vaults. As the officials set about opening the vaults, the entire area was cordoned off by personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The officials reportedly asked for gas-cutters to open the chests. However, no money was found after the lockers were opened..

2)Raids at other places: I-T officials also carried out searches at his farmhouse in Chattarpur just outside Delhi and at a bottling plant in Moradabad over allegations of tax evasion by firms associated with him.

The I-T department, according to the sources, is also looking at the possibility of illegal sale of liquor by certain firms in the run up to assembly polls in the state.

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3)Why is Ponty Chadha important: The 55-year-old businessman singularly rules over the liquor business in UP - he was granted the sole distributorship for liquor under the current Mayawati regime. He allegedly bought liquor at low prices and subsequently sold them at exorbitant rates.

4)Ponty Chadha's financial might: Pegged at $1.5 billion, his corporate assets - including liquor - also span across real estate, sugar, film production and exhibition.

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Ponty Chadha, along with his two brothers, manages the Chadha Group, which has been consolidated under the Wave brand.

He runs a popular chain of multiplexes - under the Wave brand - in the National Capital Region. One of them at Noida, incidentally, is situated in the mall that was raided by Income Tax officials over alleged tax evasion.

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5)Politically connected - Ponty Chadha was known to be close to the Samajwadi Party but shifted loyalties to the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party regime. His business, incidentally, has flourished ever since.

Apart from the sway that he holds over the liquor business, Mr Chadha also allegedly benefited in the sugar industry. Three sugar mills were awarded to his Wave Industries which led to the state reportedly incurring losses to the tune of Rs 124.70 crores.

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In the real estate sector too, a massive, 4,500 acres of prime land was awarded to Wave Infratech that he owns for the Yamuna Expressway Project - a venture that is close to Mayawati's heart and has been mired in controversies over land acquisition.