Income Tax sleuths have recovered more than Rs 50 crore cash during raids on several people including a contractor, his son, a gymnasium instructor and an architect in Karnataka, a highly-placed department official said on Sunday.

The raids that started from Thursday at 25 places belonging to two major infrastructure companies expanded to 45 by Saturday evening, the official told PTI, requesting anonymity.

Charging them with tax evasion, the I-T Department officials raided their offices at various places including Sahakarnagar and Sanjaynagar. Several documents were confiscated.

Followed by the lead obtained from these two firms, I-T officials searched the houses and other places of contractors and various other people.

"A total of 45 locations were searched till Friday while ten more places were raided and searched on Saturday.

"On Saturday, the third day of the operation, an architect and a gymnasium owner's house was raided from where Rs 8 crore in cash was seized. With this, the total amount of cash seized has crossed Rs 50 crore," the official said.

The raids are still on, he added.

According to sources in the BJP, the contractor whose house was raided was the most prominent face of the allegations of 40 per cent commission against the previous BJP government.

The BJP launched a scathing attack on the Congress government alleging that builders are being blackmailed.

BJP leader and former minister C T Ravi said there are instances where a prominent infrastructure company, which is also constructing houses, was denied water connection because it refused to pay bribes.

According to him, the builders are asked to pay a bribe at the rate of Rs 100 per square foot.

"This is an unheard of phenomenon. This had never happened before...," Ravi alleged.

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