Bank with suspicious deposits worth ?871 crore under probe
The I-T department has detected alleged discrepancies in transactions of a Rajkot-based cooperative bank where ?871 crore were deposited, over 4,500 new accounts opened and five dozen accounts with same mobile number initiated. This is reportedly one of the biggest cases of black fund generation post demonetisation. The department has now initiated action and sought full details from the bank.
New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) The Income Tax department has detected huge alleged discrepancies in the transactions of a Rajkot-based cooperative bank where Rs 871 crore deposits were made, over 4,500 new accounts opened and more than five dozen accounts having same mobile number initiated, making it one of the biggest cases of black fund generation post November 8. The departments 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 and found large irregularities. Officials said the departments investigation till now has found that cash deposits of Rs 871 crore, majorly using the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000, was made in this bank between November 9-December 30 last year while Rs 108 crore was withdrawn during the same period in a highly suspicious manner not commensurate with the banks activities during the same period in 2015 or at other times. The sleuths have identified at least 25 high value cash deposits post demonetisation where Rs 30 crore monies have been transacted in an alleged suspicious and unsatisfactory manner and in accounts with purported weak KYC norms in place. An I-T analysis report prepared in this regard states that Rs 10 crore funds were deposited in a number of "dormant" accounts post the currency scrap, including in that of a petroleum firm where Rs 2.53 crore was deposited. What has startled the taxman has been the fact that a total of "4,551 new accounts were opened in the bank post demonetisation as against the average 5,000 of such accounts usually opened in the full year while 62 of these were opened using one mobile number." 