Taxmen assaulted while on raid at Allahabad

Allahabad, May 30 (PTI) Three persons were arrested today in connection with the assault on Income Tax officials during a raid yesterday in a city-based hospital injuring 20 of the officials, police said. An FIR was registered at the Keedganj police station here late last night, hours after the raid and the subsequent assault on IT sleuths took place, police said. The FIR was following a direction from Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police A C Sharma whom senior officials of the Income Tax department met in Lucknow and complained about the behaviour of the staff of Jeevan Jyoti hospital here, they said. More than 30 people, including the hospital's owner A K Bansal, were named in the FIR following which three staff members of the hospital, including the security guard who was on duty when the assault took place, were arrested in the wee hours, police said. The FIR has been lodged under various sections of the IPC dealing with assault and causing grievous injury to deter a public servant from doing his duty. Raids were being carried out to arrest other people including Bansal, police said. Yesterday, Additional Director (Investigation) Income Tax Department Ajay Pratap Singh told reporters here that simultaneous raids were conducted at 15 places, 13 of them in Allahabad and one each in Gorakhpur and Delhi, following allegations of tax evasion by Bansal and his wife Vandana who run a number of hospitals, clinics and nursing schools in the city and elsewhere. Singh had claimed that computers and other important documents have been seized from the hospital for investigation purposes.