The Income Tax (IT) Department has conducted raids/ search and seizure operation on 14/03/2022, at 25 premises situated in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, belonging to a popular chain of Educational Institutes, running several schools/ colleges at various locations in India and abroad.
As usual, several incriminating evidences including hard copy of documents and digital data have been found/ seized in the raids. It has revealed siphoning off of substantial funds from the Trusts funds to the personal funds of the group’s promoters/ their family members, in violation of exemption provisions under the Income-tax Act, 1961, including by way of debiting bogus expenses in the guise of purchase of goods/ services from various dummy companies/ LLPs owned by the Trust’s promoters/ family members/ employees.
The siphoned-off money has been utilised for investment in acquiring benami properties and making unfair payments, which is evident from the fact that about 2 dozen such immovable properties located in Maharashtra, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu have been placed under provisional attachment, which are either benami properties or not disclosed in the respective returns of Income. Besides, evidences of borrowings of Rs. 55 Crores on Hundi and their repayment in cash, in the form of discharged Promissory Notes/ Bills of Exchange, were also found/ seized.
Further more, the search/ raid has resulted in detection/ seizure of unaccounted cash (Rs. 27 lacs), Jewellery (Rs. 3.90 crores), etc.
CBDT Press Release dt. 24/03/2022: Income Tax Department conducts searches in Maharashtra