The Income Tax department has said that searches in the the cases of two groups primarily running educational institutions engaged in professional courses have resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash amounting to ₹32 crore and gold bullion of ₹28 crore, thereby aggregating to ₹60 crore.

The seized documents suggest that amounts exceeding ₹300 crore have been diverted from trusts either for personal expenses of the trustees or for deployment in diverse businesses. It includes payments made by one of the groups for acquiring an industrial entity in Andhra Pradesh, says a release from the department.

The raids were held at the premises of DMK Member of Parliament S Jagathrakshakan though the department in the release did not reveal the identity of the groups.

The department said that the group is also carrying out other businesses such as distillery, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and hotels. About 100 premises in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were covered during the raids held on October 5, the department said.

A large number of Incriminating evidence in the form of loose sheets, hard copy of documents, and digital data have been found and seized. The modus-operandi of tax evasion detected in running such educational institutions includes concealment of fee receipts, bogus claim of disbursement of scholarships.

Large scale evidence about receipt of fees which are unrecorded in the books of account and claim of non-genuine disbursement of scholarships have been seized. The preliminary analysis, so far, has resulted in collecting evidence for such unaccounted fee receipts of more than ₹400 crore and incorrect claim of disbursement of scholarship to the tune of ₹25 crore.

In one of the groups, seized evidence indicates that trust was utilising the services of agents for garnering students, for which unaccounted commission payment of about ₹25 crore has been made, the release said.

In the distillery business run by one of the groups, it has been found that bogus expenditure has been claimed for about ₹500 crore towards purchase of inputs such as, bottles, flavours, Extra Neutral Alcohol and freight charges. Such purchases are not corroborated with purchase invoices or entries in stock registers. Several evidences have been recovered showing that cheques have been issued to various non-existent entities and the same have been received back in the form of cash for making unaccounted investments and for other expenditures which are not allowable as business expenses.

Further investigations are in progress, the release said.

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