JOHANNESBURG, March 6 (ANA) - Indian tax inspectors on Tuesday raided properties owned by the Gupta family on suspicion they were bringing money into their native country, an official said.
The Times of India quoted Amrendra Kumar, a senior income tax official in India's Uttar Pradesh state, as saying the Gupta brothers - Ajay, Atul and Rajesh - were suspected of finding ways to bring "illicit money" they had earned abroad into India.
A Reuters report said Kumar who was speaking by telephone said he was involved in the ongoing raids that started at about 7am.
Indian officials conducted raids at residences of the Guptas in the town of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and the nearby town of Dehradun, as well as one of their offices in the capital, New Delhi, Kumar said.
"We want to look into blocking that way," Kumar said.
"They make all kind of illegal money there outside, these are the allegations which we want to look into," he said.
The three Gupta brothers went to South Africa in the early 1990s and built a commercial empire stretching from computers to mining and media.
Last month, South African police raided Gupta properties in Johannesburg as part of an investigation into their dealings.
South Africa's chief prosecutor declared the eldest brother Ajay Gupta a "fugitive from justice" after he failed to report to police investigators.
While the whereabouts of the Gutpa brothers remain unknown, the African News Agency (ANA) understands they were not in India at the time of the raids.
A top judge in South Africa will investigate whether the Guptas sought to influence the appointment of cabinet ministers there and were unlawfully awarded state tenders.
New SA President Cyril Ramaphosa has made fighting corruption a top priority. Indications are that decade-old corruption charges against his predecessor, Zuma, could soon be revived.
- African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Lindiz van Zilla
