CUTTACK: A couple from Salepur landed in trouble after getting an Income Tax (I-T) notice for transactions worth crores of rupees made through their bank accounts.
The couple Debendra Rout and Sasmita Sethi of Bodamundai village were unaware of the transactions.
For their livelihood, Debendra deals with colour works while Sasmita provides home nursing service to patients.
According to the poor couple, in 2016, when they were residing in Cuttack’s Purighat locality, they had come in contact with a woman who lured them with job assurance.
As per the woman’s direction, the couple had gone to a Chartered Accountant’s firm at Vani Vihar in Bhubaneswar where they submitted document including their photos, voter IDs and Aadhaar cards as required by the firm owner who then prepared their PAN cards and opened bank accounts in their names.
While an account in HDFC Bank was opened in the name of Debendra, another was opened in the name of Sasmita in Central Bank.
The couple also said the firm owner had given them Rs 10,000 when they approached him after failing to get jobs. They learnt about the fraud only after the IT department served notice.
While Rs 2.87 crore was transacted through Debendra’s bank account, Rs 1.56 crore was transacted through Sasmita’s account.
“We came to know about the huge transactions only after getting a notice from the Income Tax (IT) Department. We have filed a complaint with DCP, Cuttack in this connection and sought his intervention to get justice,” said Debendra.