Bollywood’s IPL owners in trouble

A cricket team owned by Bollywood megastar Shahrukh Khan is being investigated by Indian tax officials, amidst allegations of huge financial irregularities in the IPL.Income tax sleuths raided the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team’s office in Kolkata and reams of documents were removed from the building, pending further investigations.”Officials are trying to probe financial details and deals of KKR,” according to a

Delhi-based television channel.

The Indian Govt has stepped up a countrywide probe over the IPL franchise owners, after India’s junior External Affairs Minister Shashi Tharoor quit his post last Sunday, after allegations of his participation in the IPL scandal.Celebrities like actresses Shilpa Shetty, Preity Zinta and several other famous Indian corporate stalwarts, own the eight franchise of IPL, worth millions of dollars, which has now come under the taxman’s scanner. Down south, officials are also probing the Chennai Supper Kings and the Kings XI, co-owned by Preity Zinta.

Income tax investigators are conducting a coordinated search in eight diverse cities today. Tharoor resigned over allegations of corruption in winning the cricket league franchise for the newly-promoted Kochi team from his home state Kerala. Claims of tax evasion, black money, tax havens used to channel funds, corruption and match fixing in IPL had surfaced — forcing Indian authorities to take instant action.