NEW DELHI: The income tax department has has allegedly detected huge discrepancies in the transactions of a Rajkot-based co-operative bank — Rs 871-crore deposits, over 4,500 new accounts, and 62 accounts having the same mobile number — making it one of the biggest cases of black fund generation after November 8.
The department’s Ahmedabad probe wing has now initiated action under tax laws and has sought full details from the bank after it conducted survey operations against it sometime back.
Officials said the department’s investigation till now had found that cash deposits worth Rs 871 crore, mainly using the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, were made in the bank between November 9 and December 30 last year while Rs 108 crore was withdrawn during the same period in a highly suspicious manner.
The withdrawal was not commensurate with the bank’s activities during the same period in 2015 or at other times.
The sleuths have identified at least 25 high-value cash deposits after the demonetisation where Rs 30 crore has been transacted in an allegedly suspicious manner and in accounts with purportedly weak Know Your Customer norms in place.
An income tax analysis report states that after the notes ban Rs 10 crore funds were deposited in a number of “dormant” accounts, including in one of a petroleum firm where Rs 2.53 crore was deposited. There were blatant discrepancies in the pay-in slips filled to make the deposits; none of them had PAN numbers and documents to reflect the source of these amounts and many had no signatures of the depositor.
“It was found that the son of bank’s ex-director has received Rs 1 crore through cash deposits in 30 bank accounts. All the pay-in slips were filled by the same person. Also, the mother of the vice-chairman of the bank has received Rs 64 lakh of cash deposits which have ultimately been transferred to a jeweller,” the report alleged.