IT sleuth unearth Rs 43 Cr, 2.5 Million USD, 88kg gold and diamonds worth Rs 5Cr from Self-styled godman Kalki Bhagavan.

Hyderabad: The ongoing income tax raids against controversial self-styled godman Kalki Bhagwan resulted in a seizure of Rs 93 crore in the form of unaccounted cash, gold, diamond and foreign currency.

I-T officials confiscated Rs 43 crore worth unaccounted cash and 2.5 million USD. Besides money, 88 kg of gold valued at over Rs 26 crore, undisclosed diamonds amounting to 1,271 carats worth Rs 5 crore were also seized. The sleuths from Chennai’s Anti-tax evasion wing revealed the undisclosed income of the group detected so far is estimated at more than Rs 500 crore.

The raids have entered its third day on October 17, and are continuing at 40 premises located in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Varadaiahpalem of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh. The IT department was acting upon intelligence inputs that the group has been suppressing its receipts, which are ploughed into vast tracts in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and also investments abroad.

“Evidence found with key employees (who maintained a record of cash collections) revealed that money was kept outside the accounts for investments elsewhere. It is learnt that the group also earned unaccounted income from property sales over and above documented values. A preliminary estimate of such unaccounted cash receipts is Rs 409 crore from 2014-15 fiscal onwards. Such unaccounted cash receipts are also evidenced by huge quantities of valuables found at the residences of the founder and his son,” a source said.

An important discovery is that the group has been investing in several companies in India, China, USA, Singapore, and UAE, including tax havens. Some of these companies are found to be receiving payments from foreign clients who attend various residential “wellness” courses offered in India, said the tax men. They are investigating into the diversion of taxable income in India to offshore entities by the group

Further, IT sleuths are probing into the group trusts providing accommodation entries for other parties. The trusts receive donations from other parties and then return the money under the guise of expenses and receive a small percentage as a fee. The sleuths found instances where the group does not account for the foreign currency earned from international clients, and later exchange the same in the grey market.