Indore, Dec 10: A huge amount of tax evasion was detected following sleuths of central excise and customs department carried out raids at three factories in Indore and Pithampur respectively. Following unearthing of tax evasion, the proprietors of these factories made payment of Rs 5.15 crore of excise tax to the department officials on the spot.

The department sleuths also seized various incriminating documents from these factories, the details of which were being evaluated till filing this report. It was after a long time that the central excise department carried out raids on these factories. Besides local officials, 15 department officials from Baroda had also come to Indore for the raids.

Department sources informed that out of three factories, one is a plastic company - Logicpoli Product located at Dewas Naka in Indore. Following the raids, company which started its operation here only 11 months back, deposited an excise tax of Rs 2 crore to the department officials. A large number of incriminating documents and other material were also recovered from the factory premises.

The other two factories which were raided included a steel company Metalman India Ltd. in Indore and its sister unit Soni Ispat Ltd. at Pithampur.Vijay Soni, who is owner of these factories, following detection of evasion of taxes, deposited a sum of Rs 3.15 crore as tax to the department officials on the spot. Besides tax evasion, the department officials also seized documents from these factories and after thorough scrutiny of these documents, the amount of tax evasion may increase further, department sources informed.