KOCHI: The income tax department has conducted raids at 12 offices of Aginora, a company engaged in overseas education and job recruitment in Kochi, following allegations that it had been operating without filing income tax returns.
The raid, which began on Wednesday and continued until Thursday evening, uncovered large-scale tax evasion, said a source with the department.
“Transactions from the past six years are under scrutiny, and we have seized several documents and digital evidence related to tax evasion. The company has not filed income tax returns for the past four years, and previous filings were incomplete or inaccurate. The full extent of the fraud will be known only after examining the seized records,” said the official.
Aginora, headquartered in Edappally with its branches across the country, primarily functions as a study abroad consultancy and also facilitates the placement of industrial and agricultural workers.
Sources added that the firm collected Rs 7–10 lakh from each aspirant, but failed to declare the full amount in its financial statements.