KOCHI: The Income Tax (I-T) investigation unit from Kochi seized Rs 70 lakhs suspected to be unaccounted money from the office of the Karuna Medical College Trust in Palakkad on Saturday.
The raid was based on a tip-off. I-T department conducted a surprise raid and recovered the amount from the trust office of the medical college.
According to I-T officials, the raid commenced on Friday night and continued till Saturday afternoon. Of the seized currencies, Rs 50 lakhs were in the denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. The rest were in the denominations of Rs 2000 notes.
“Till now the hospital management under the charitable trust named Safe Development Alms Trust could not give any explanation about the amount stocked at their office. A case has been registered against the trust.
The currencies have been seized. Only once the related documents and proper explanation about the money is submitted, would the amount be released," said the I-T official.
According to I-T officials, they were closely monitoring the activities of the trust even before demonetization including the banking activities of the trust.
"We had information about the funds received by the trust for some time. Since the proper income tax details were not provided, we knew that currencies would have been stuck with the trust after demonetisation move,” said an I-T official.
As the second stage of the probe into the case, I-T department would be recording the statement of the members of the trust. "Notice would be given to the trust members to appear before us and give explanation about the source of the money," said the I-T official.