Income Tax Department raids continued at Kanpur-based tobacco tycoon KK Mishra’s properties for the fifth day on Monday. After the seizure of over Rs 4 crore of unaccounted cash and jewellery worth Rs 3 crore during raids on his residence and company-linked premises, Mishra was pulled up by the authorities who began to grill him.

However, sources said that he has been evading questions by the tax officials under the pretext of bad health. He told the tax agency that he’d recently undergone liver transplant surgery and that was his apprehension during the interrogation.

The Income Tax Department has raided Banshidhar Tobacco Company in Kanpur since Thursday evening. Raids have been conducted at 20 locations of the company, including Kanpur, Delhi, Mumbai and Gujarat.

According to sources, the company has shown its turnover as Rs 20 to 25 crores, contrary to the actual turnover of around Rs 100–150 crore.

Several luxury cars worth over 60 crores, including a Rolls-Royce Phantom, McLaren, Lamborghini, and Ferrari, were also found by officials at the residence of the company owner in Delhi. Some incriminating documents, password-protected hard disks and laptops were seized and have been sent for forensics by the IT department.

The Income Tax Department alleges that the tobacco company, which supplies raw materials to other firms, evaded filing taxes and GST on a large scale.