LUCKNOW, April 9 -- The Income Tax (I-T) department on Tuesday carried out searches at five locations of Ansal API, a real estate developer, including its Sushant Golf City office in Lucknow, to explore the alleged tax evasion by it.

Since March 4, over 50 FIRs related to fraud and cheating with investors have been filed in Lucknow as well as other parts of the state against Ansal API.

A senior I-T official confirmed that a Delhi unit of the department carried out a survey at the five locations, including residences of Ansal API directors in Lucknow, after getting inputs of a major amount of tax evasion by the firm.

"The team members searched the documents related to the amount invested by thousands of gullible people in the township. ...