Indian authorities raid shell companies across country

Indian authorities on Saturday raided hundreds of shell companies in a nationwide crackdown.

Sleuths of the country's Enforcement Directorate carried out searches across 100 locations, including the eastern cities of Kolkata and Patna, the northern city of Chandigarh, the western city of Ahmedabad, financial capital Mumbai and the Indian capital, sources said.

However, no one has yet been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate during the raids, a senior government official said.

The raids were conducted weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office is said to have identified more than 15,000 paper companies which do not conduct any operations but are used to launder money and evade taxes.

In a televised speech to the nation on Nov. 8, Modi announced the scrapping of currency notes of 500 rupees (7.5 U.S. dollars) and 1,000 rupees in a bid to curb the menace of black money and prevent circulation of fake notes among terrorists. (1 Indian rupee = 0.015 U.S. dollar) Endit