Income-tax raid on Poddar premises

 Poddar owns four jute mills- Victoria, Angus, Samnuggar and Ganges- and controls over 5 per cent share of the Indian jute industry.

 Informed sources said the I-T officials unearthed unaccounted stocks of jute bags and raw jute worth crores of rupees. Repeated attempts to contact Poddar failed.

 Poddar was caught up in controversy last year over acquisition of Samnuggar, Victoria and Angus, three subsidiaries of Azmara Plc for Rs 1.53 crore.

 He and his associates allegedly bought the shares of the companies, which were auctioned by the Regional Provident Fund, cheap. This followed suspension of a couple of the provident fund officials and initiation of a CBI enquiry.

 The controversy over the sale of these companies divided the entire jute industrialists into two camps. Indian Jute Manufacturers