The Bengaluru police Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the unnatural death of real estate tycoon C J Roy, 57, has interviewed multiple income tax (I-T) officials and family members as part of its inquiry.
Confident Group chairman Roy, who had businesses in Karnataka, Kerala and the UAE, was found dead with a gunshot wound in his locked Bengaluru office on January 30, amid an ongoing I-T probe. His body was found after staff broke down the door, in what has now been confirmed as a case of death by suicide.
The SIT constituted by the Karnataka government has interviewed several I-T officials involved with the probe against Roy and the Confident Group last week, multiple sources said.
A Kerala-based additional commissioner of income tax, under whose supervision the I-T proceedings for tax evasion were initiated on November 27, 2025, and the deputy director of I-T (investigation) from Kerala, who issued a summons dated December 3, 2025, to Roy to appear for investigations, are among the officials interviewed.
“We have also spoken to members of the family. We are yet to come to a conclusion, and there is more work to be done,” an SIT official said.
While the income tax evasion probe was carried out by the investigation wing of the I-T department’s Kochi unit, several officials from the Bengaluru and Kochi units were involved in the search and seizure procedures conducted at the Confident Group premises in Bengaluru and at locations linked to allied individuals on December 3 last year.
The I-T officials had returned to the Confident Group offices on January 28 to complete the process of investigation—like the opening of a sealed cabin in the office with seized materials within 60 days of the search as prescribed by rules—when Roy died.
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While challenging the I-T probe against him in a Karnataka High Court writ petition filed on December 16 and withdrawn on December 18, Roy had named a deputy director and assistant director of investigation from Bengaluru and director general of income tax (investigation) in Kerala as the respondents in the case.
The I-T officials have denied the role of the I-T probe being a factor in his death, sources indicated.
After Roy’s death, his family had sought privacy to grieve when approached by SIT officials. They participated in the probe this week, police sources said.
‘Company has not faced issue with regard to I-T probe’
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Soon after Roy’s death, his brother, C J Babu, who has interests in a separate real estate and gold business, had said in media statements that the Confident Group chairman was under duress on account of I-T proceedings launched against him from Kerala. Babu, however, did not make the statements to the police subsequently, sources said.
Last week, after SIT officials interviewed I-T officials from Kerala, the managing director of the Confident Group’s real estate business in Kerala, Joseph T A, told the state media that the I-T department had not harassed the real estate businessman.
“I had told him (Babu) not to raise such allegations. Income Tax has not harassed anyone, and we (Roy and I) are not persons who will submit to such harassment. The company has not faced any issue with regard to the I-T investigation,” Joseph said on February 9.
“It was a routine investigation that is held at regular intervals. In 2016, I-T had inspected the offices of the Confident Group. In 2025, too, they inspected our offices in Bengaluru and in Kochi. When the search was going on in Kochi, I was at the office. I-T officials behaved very reasonably with us. We have not faced any trouble from them. I am sure the same process had taken place in Bengaluru also,” he said
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“Our company has no illegal activities such as money laundering or benami dealings. We are not engaged in any illegal business,” he claimed.
The Confident Group official indicated the finding of a nine-page note written by Roy at the east Bengaluru hotel where the real estate tycoon was staying when he was in the city for the I-T probe at the end of January this year. Police sources, however, said the note did not indicate anything with regard to the circumstances of the death but was general in nature and for his family.
