The Income Tax department on Thursday conducted searches at several premises in New Delhi connected to news portal The Quint in a case of alleged tax evasion.

"Searches are in connection with bogus long term capital gain received by various beneficiaries. Along with Raghav Behal there are other three beneficiaries namely Kamal Lalwani, Anup Jain and Abhimanyu whose premises are also covered. For such bogus LTCG," said an Income Tax source.

Searches by the Income Tax department began at 8 am at The Quint office and other residential premises. Raghav Bahl, The Quint founder, in a statement said, "I have a matter of great concern to share with the Guild. While I was in Mumbai this morning, dozens of IT officials descended on my residence and The Quint's office for a "survey". We are a fully tax compliant entity, and will provide all access to all appropriate financial documents."

"However, I have just spoken to the officer on my premises, one Mr Yadav, and requested him, strongly, to not try and pick up or see any other mail/document which is likely to contain very serious/sensitive journalistic material. If they do that, then we shall seek extremely strong recourse. I do hope the EG will back us on this, and thereby set a precedent for any such exercise that may happen on any other journalistic entity in the future. They should also not misuse their smartphones to take unauthorised copies of this material," added Bahl.

It is learnt that I-T officials seized few documents relating to financial transactions of the company.

The Editors Guild of India too expressed its concern over the searches. In a tweet, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "IT raid on the editors of The Quint: can this really be unconnected to the courageous analyses of this government & ruling party by Raghav Bahl?"

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala questioned the Modi government over these raids. He said, "To my mind, freedom of the Press is not just a slogan but it is an essential attribute of the democratic process ~ Pandit Nehru. We strongly stand by Freedom of Press. Modiji, you cannot subjugate and suffocate their freedom by I-T raids."

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