Income Tax surveys at Pune Warriors, Royal Challengers' offices completed

Income Tax authorities on Thursday completed their survey operations at the offices of Indian Premier League franchises Pune Warriors and Royal Challengers Bangalore as part of their probe into alleged tax evasion.

I-T sources said officials who were sent to collect documents and details of the transactions, share holding patterns and financial investments of the franchises on Wednesday, had finished their job and have also seized data from computers and other electronic peripherals.

The survey operations against the Pune team was conducted at Pune, Mumbai and Amby Valley at Lonavala near Mumbai while that against the Bangalore team was done in the southern city, sources said.

A probe report in this regard was also sent to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) headquartered in the national capital.

The I-T department is looking into the funding patterns for purchase of players by these franchises.

The surveys have been conducted in the wake of Pune Warriors' player Mohnish Mishra's statement that he had got much more than his prescribed auction amount under the table as black money during a 'sting' operation conducted by a news channel, which claimed to have exposed corruption in the IPL.

Mishra had later retracted his statement, saying he had said it casually "to develop his value".

The Pune Warriors team had suspended Mishra hours after the BCCI handed him the same punishment for his alleged involvement in spot-fixing, pending a board inquiry. Sources said similar operations are expected to be conducted against other franchises too as well as state cricket associations.