New Delhi, Jan. 20 -- Search operations at several locations of the Bharat Hotels group, its associates and a leading automobile dealer firm have been launched by the Income Tax Department. The raids come in connection with a tax evasion investigation.

The officials said around 8 premises linked to Bharat Hotels CMD Jyotsna Suri and some of her associates along with Jayant Nanda, promoter of Cargo Motors, one of the largest dealers of Tata motors in the country have been searched.

The chain of Lalit hotels in the country is owned by the Bharat Hotels group. Jyotsna Suri, who has also been the chairman of industry body FICCI in the past, has been associated with the Bharat Hotels group since 1989, who after the death of her husband and h...