I-T knocks Priyanka's door, finds Shahid

Income Tax officers, who went to raid Priyanka Chopra's home at 7.30 am, were greeted by Shahid Kapoor clad only in his shorts

"If I woke up as Priyanka Chopra one day, I would wonder what I was doing in Shahid Kapoor's bedroom and then walk over to my flat in the next wing," actor Shahid Kapoor had famously said on a popular chat show barely a month ago. Little did he know that the statement would come back to bite him.

Income Tax officials, who went to Chopra's Versova residence for a raid at 7.30 am yesterday, were in for a surprise when they were greeted not by the sultry siren but by a sleepy Kapoor, who was wearing nothing but shorts.

For a moment, they thought they had raided the wrong sixth floor apartment in Classic Building on Yari Road. One of the officers disclosed that after rubbing his eyes in shock for a second it occurred to him that Shahid and Priyanka were "great friends".

He said Shahid left the house as soon as he finished getting dressed. "Shahid was very much at Priyanka's house, but he wasn't in the buff and nor did he open the door. She has servants, so why would he open the door? Shahid had spent the night at Priyanka's place and she had come from walking the ramp at a fashion show for Shabana Azmi. The two are trying to spend as much time together before PC starts the promotions for her movie Saat Khoon Maaf," said a source close to Kapoor. "Shocked as we were, we knew we had a raid to carry out and that's precisely what we did. It was meant to be a swift operation and security personnel in the building were not given a chance to warn the actor that we were on the way up," said an I-T official.

The raid

A senior I-T official confirmed that nearly 70 officers drawn from various units raided 12 properties belonging to Chopra and Katrina Kaif yesterday in connection with alleged tax evasion.

The officials sealed 12 lockers and verification of documents continued till late in the evening.

Officials said many documents were seized from Chopra's residence, which was created by merging five flats.

The residence of Capt Dr Ashok Chopra, the former Miss World's father, at Lokhandwala was also raided.

Kaif's personal assistants and two celebrity management companies ” Matrix and Bling ” arranged shows and other parties for the actress.

The office and residence of photographer Atul Kasbekar, who owned Matrix and now runs Bling, were also raided.

I-T officials did not find any documents in Kaif's Bandra home. Officials said they have found that the two actresses converted black money into white using Section 80 RR (see box) of the I-T Code.

"The actresses have done many stage shows abroad. They took more money by cheque to get more exemption and then returned some of it in cash after returning to India. The said money is not reflected in their I-T returns," said an officer. "The raids are still continuing," said I-T Director General (investigation) B P Gaur.

Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor were unavailable for comment.