The Adhunik group’s office in Ranchi on Monday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Sept. 19: Income tax (IT) sleuths on Monday raided different premises of Calcutta-headquartered industrial house Adhunik Group in connection with the mining scam involving former chief minister Madhu Koda and his henchman Vinod Sinha.

According to reports, the company, which deals in mining and steel, was able to invest heavily in its steel and power units after coming in association with Koda and Sinha.

In Ranchi, the raids, which started at the company’s office in a multi-storey building on Main Road in the morning, were on till last reports came in. The exercise is likely to continue for a day or two till the sleuths reach a conclusion vis-à-vis unaccountable wealth, if any, accumulated by the company and its promoters.

IT sources said the raids were on in as many as 25 locations across six states — Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa, Meghalaya, Assam and Maharashtra.

Jamshedpur-based entrepreneur Manoj Kumar Agarwal is the managing director of the group, which has a string of sister concerns like Adhunik Metaliks Limited, Adhunik Steels Limited, Adhunik Corporation Limited, Adhunik Alloys & Power Limited, Orissa Manganese & Minerals Limited and Adhunik Power & Natural Resources Limited, among others.

The company, which has set up an iron unit at Kandra in Seraikela-Kharsawan and is in the process of opening a beneficiation-cum-pelletisation plant and a 1000MW power plant in the vicinity, has been aggressively pursuing to get iron ore mines in Ghatkuri reserve of West Singhbhum. But it has not tasted much success till date.

Notably, the group was even able to convince the erstwhile Shibu Soren government to file an affidavit in Supreme Court, recommending a share of Ghatkuri reserve in favour of it. However, the affidavit was later taken back as it was found that the reserve is meant for PSUs only.

IT additional commissioner (investigations) Ajit Kumar Shrivastava confirmed the raids on the property of Adhunik companies and senior officials and promoters.