Mumbai's iconic Leopold Cafe that was among the terror targets during
the 2008 Mumbai attacks, saw income tax sleuths swooping down upon it in
the busy hours of Monday.
The cafe, which is a popular tourist
stop-by at Colaba Causeway in South Mumbai, came under the IT scanner
for alleged discrepancies in the income tax of the previous financial
year.
According to IT sources, the owners of Leopold cafe have
made tax evasions, which the department is now
verifying. In the raid
that lasted almost twelve hours, the sleuths scrutinised tax documents
and receipts at the cafe.
Leopold, which found itself among the
top tourist destinations for international travellers after it was
mentioned in Gregory Roberts' famous magnum opus, Shantaram, looked like
a virtual scene of crime all through Monday night as a team of IT
officials, dressed in civil clothes, lurked around the premises while
the bosses studied the financial records of the cafe.
The IT
sleuths had landed at the cafe at around 6pm on Monday night, a time
when business is at its peak for the cafe. Sources in the IT department
say, "We are looking into certain transactions that appear dubious from
the last financial year. We have taken some documents into our custody
in order to be able to ascertain the gravity of the irregularities.
There is a certain tax evasion that has been made by the cafe. We also
need to verify other irregularities that have come to the fore during
the probe."
Tax sleuths will now go through several years of the
tax record of the cafe. If the concluding report is not in favour of the
cafe, it could face serious trouble from the IT department.