I-T department seizes Rs 80 crore in cash

IN ONE of the biggest cash hauls in recent times, the income tax department has seized over Rs 80 crore in cash allegedly stashed by a Puducherry-based education trust that runs several institutions in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The cash, packed in cartons, was recovered when the I-T department in Chennai conducted searches on three premises linked to Sri Balaji Educational and Charitable Public Trust at Chennai, Puducherry and Kodaikanal.

The trust runs two medical colleges, two engineering colleges, one dental and one nursing college.

Sources in I-T department in Chennai said they had received information of alleged malpractices related to tax evasion. “We had been watching the activities of the trust. We had information that the trust was taking huge capitation fee for admission in its various colleges,” an I-T official said.

Sources said the trust had stashed all the cash on premises not directly connected to the promoters or the trust.

“The largest amount of cash was recovered from the house of a trust employee’s mother. The cash was packed in cartons and hidden in a cavity in the house. The house was located in the remote Ariankuppu area in Pondicherry. Similarly, another big consignment was recovered from an empty flat in Chennai. While no one was occupying the flat, the trust people kept a watch on it,” the official said.

Sources said the department recovered several “incriminating documents” which indicate “massive tax evasion” on the part of the trust. “The documents are being scrutinised. We will get a better idea of the scale of tax evasion and undeclared assets acquired by the trust and its promoters after the scrutiny is over,” said the official.

The trust website says it was founded by M K Rajagopalan. Among the various colleges the trust runs are Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Science, Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering and Technology, Bharathiyar College of Engineering and Technology, Kasturba Gandhi Nursing College and Sri Venkateswara College of Education.