IT raid at GTL's Mumbai office

MUMBAI, INDIA: The Income Tax Department has conducted a search on the offices of telecom infrastructure company Global Telesystems (GTL), which is part of Global Group, a major corporate which is into the business of telecom towers.

According to sources, more than a hundred high-value paintings, including that of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Rabindranath Tagore, have been discovered during the raids, which were conducted at 45 offices of the company, as well as the residence of its chairman and managing director, Manoj Tirodkar.

Though the raids were prompted by reports of suspected tax evasion, a GTL spokesperson said that it was a routine search.

Recently GTL was close to acquiring the telecom towers of Reliance Communications in a Rs 50,000-crore merger deal. However, due to differences over valuation, the companies called of the deal and Reliance Communications is in the look out for another buyer for its tower business.