A member of the raid team with packets of the seized cashew nuts on Wednesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Commercial tax and income tax officials on Wednesday carried out a surprise raid at Patna Junction and seized cashew nuts and other articles worth crores from the railway parcel godown.

The articles, including packets of cashew nuts valued at Rs 1 crore, were unloaded at the station from the weekly Puri-Patna Express late on Tuesday night.

“The items were stored in the parcel godown after being unloaded at the station late on Tuesday night,” a member of the joint raid team said.

Apart from cashew nuts, electronic gadgets and medicines were also seized. The consignments, according to the officials, were to be delivered to agents and dealers in Bihar.

According to the officials of the commercial taxes department, the surprise raid was conducted to prevent tax evasion by some businessmen, who preferred transporting goods through trains rather than trucks.

Commercial taxes department joint commissioner S.N. Jha confirmed the seizure of 25 tonnes of cashew nut valued at Rs 1 crore.

“We got a tip-off about the arrival of the consignment from Puri. Subsequently, a team was formed and the raid was conducted today (Wednesday),” he added.

Jha said the cashew nuts were being transported from Plasa Market in Puri. The documents of the articles unloaded from different trains in the past two days and stored in the parcel godown were being verified. All the goods were booked under fictitious names.

“Penalty would be slapped on traders found violating the prescribed rules of the department,” Jha added.

The officials of the departments said the seized goods would be auctioned if there were no claimants.

Last year, the commercial taxes department officials had seized several cartons of medicines during a surprise inspection of the railway parcel godown.