On May 18, the Income Tax (IT) department conducted raids on the properties of former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA and liquor baron Deep Malhotra. He is the Chairman and Managing Director of the OASIS Group, a prominent player in the Indian liquor industry.
Searches were carried out by the IT officials in the districts of Faridkot Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Bathinda in Punjab at his companies and associates. Apart from Punjab, the raids were conducted in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana. In total, IT officials raided 42 places.
As per the reports, at around 7 AM, several teams of the IT department raided 6 locations in Faridkot and Ferozepur. At Adarsh Nagar in Faridkot, IT officials searched Malhotra’s residence and his company’s office in Khokhran Wala Mohala. The officials also searched the homes of his two associates, who managed his liquor operations.
In Ferozepur, IT officials also searched Malhotra’s company-owned private distillery Malbros International Private Limited, at Mansurwal Kalan village in Zira. This liquor factory was in the news because the residents alleged that this distillery causes air and water pollution. The officials also conducted searches at the residence of the liquor factory’s Chief Administrative Officer Pawan Bansal in Ferozepur city.
The officials have not released an official statement about the searches, but according to reports, the officials were conducting these raids suspecting tax evasion and checked documents, including computers. Furthermore, they took documents from the Zira liquor factory. In these searches, around 350 IT officials were involved apart from the CRPF personnel. These searches will likely continue.
The action by the IT department coincides with an ongoing investigation into the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi Excise Policy case. The ED searched Malhotra’s properties in October 2022, including the Faridkot property, and in February 2023, the agency arrested Malhotra’s son Gautam Malhotra in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy Case.
Punjab’s Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, announced in January that the government would shut down Malhotra’s Zira liquor factory in response to a protest organised by the Zira Sanjha Morcha, which claims that the alcohol-producing facility is polluting the air and groundwater in several villages.
Since the government did not provide a formal notification, locals continued to protest in front of the liquor factory, Malbros International Private Limited. Recently, the factory submitted a fresh petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the closure order.
