Last Tuesday, the shares of Polycab, which had a market capitalisation of Rs80,000 crore and sales of over Rs16,000 crore, slumped 9% on the news of income tax (I-T) searches at its offices for alleged tax evasion. The stock stabilised for a day and then collapsed 21% on Thursday when the I-T department issued an unusually detailed press release saying that it had discovered undeclared cash sales of Rs1,000 crore; the release did not name Polycab.