KOCHI/CHENNAI : The Income Tax Department on Wednesday conducted simultaneous raids on 78 branches, 29 in Kerala and rest across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry, of Sree Gokulam Chits and Finance and at the house of Sunil Kumar - its AGM in Kochi.
The search was conducted as part of a probe into the suspected I-T evasion and black money hoarding. The raids commenced at 8 am.
The employees at the regional office of the Gokulam chits at MG Road, Kochi, told ‘Express’ they came to know about the raid only after reaching the office by 9 am. “When we reached the office, the raid was going on. We were told by the I-T officers to cooperate as files and registers were being checked,” said a Gokulam staffer.
An I-T officer said raids were carried out following a directive from the Chennai unit. “The I-T unit in Chennai directed us to check the financial transactions and deposits in each branch of the company.
We have recovered records of financial transactions and accounts,” said an I-T officer. Meanwhile, the IT Department sources in Chennai said: “The chit fund company had made some foreign investments but they were not shown in the returns. We have to ascertain the magnitude of the investment.”
After summoned by the IT officers, Gokulam Gopalan, managing director of Gokulam Chits, appeared before them in Chennai on Wednesday. He was attending a family function at Vadakara when the officers summoned him.
“The Income Tax Commissioner had informed us last year that around 40 complaints were received against the company. The Department received similar complaints, though no connection to black money, this year as well prompting the officers to carry out the raid.
Interestingly, the 40 complaints received last year were of the same nature,” said a source close to Gopalan. Gokulam Chits is yet to issue an official statement.