Bitcoin’s explosive growth in the past couple of days has grabbed the attention of Indian Income Tax Department, which carried out “surveys” at nine major bitcoin exchanges across the country on Wednesday in a major crackdown.

The move comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a second warning on the risks of digital currencies. More recently, the Supreme Court of India sought the government’s response on a plea to regulate the flow of bitcoin and establishing a panel to develop a digital currency regulatory framework. The notice was issued to notice to the ministries of Finance, Law and Justice, Information Technology, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and the RBI.

The Times of India reported that a senior official has clarified that these were not raids, but surveys under section 133(A) of the I-T Act.

The official stated that the objective was "gathering evidence to establish the identity of investors and traders, transactions undertaken by them, identity of the counterparties, related bank accounts used, etc".

Speaking to Reuters, Surabhi Ahluwalia, spokeswoman for the department, said that the department trying to find a way to tax bitcoin transactions.

“We are looking at collecting information about modus-operandi of bitcoin exchanges, investors, their source of investment and possibility of collecting tax,” Ahluwalia said.

The operations were led across six major cities – Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, and Gurugram – by the Bengaluru wing, under the Karnataka and Goa directorate of the department.

Bitcoin is currently trading at around $16000 levels, equivalent to around Rs.1024000 at the current exchange rate, at the time of writing. However, on Indian bitcoin exchanges it is trading at a huge premium – for instance, on Zebpay, Bitcoin is over Rs.1380000 (or $21562) at press time.