New Delhi (NVI): The Income Tax department has conducted search operations on the premises of a well-known self-styled evangelist of Thiruvalla in Kerala and his group of various trusts.
The group operates places of worship, along with schools, colleges across the country, a medical college and a hospital in Kerala.
These trusts enjoy exemption under the Income-tax Act, 1961 as charitable or religious trusts.
The department operation covered 66 premises located in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, Chandigarh, Punjab and Telengana, a release said.
“The searches were carried out as credible information was received that the group has received donations from foreign countries ostensibly for helping the poor and the destitute and for evangelical purposes, but was actually siphoning out such tax-exempted funds in cash to engage in unaccounted cash transactions for personal and other illegal expenses in real estate transactions,” it added.
The group also operates about 30 trusts, across the country, and most of them exist only on paper and have been found to be used for routing the unaccounted funds, the release said.
During the search operation, evidences have been found of systematic inflation of expenses in purchase of consumables, construction expenses, real estate development expenses, payment of salary, etc. The search also led to unearthing of a number of real estate transactions involving unaccounted cash payments and related documents such as sale agreements have been seized.
Meanwhile, the evidence found so far indicate that the siphoning of funds in cash may be running into hundreds of crores of rupees.
“Unexplained cash of approximately Rs 6 crore has been found during the search, including Rs 3.85 crore in a place of worship in Delhi. Further investigations are going on,” the release added.
-RJV
