Bengaluru, Sep 29: The Investigation Directorate of the Income Tax Department, Bengaluru, seized unaccounted cash worth Rs 43 crore from Vydehi Medical College premises in South-East Bengaluru. The college is a part of the DK Audikesavulu Group.
I-T officials said the department launched raids on premises of the Audikesavulu Group on September 23. Raids were also conducted on the group's premises in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi and at the residences of the key members of the group.
Sources in the I-T department said that incriminating documents and other evidence have also been seized from these premises.
This money – in wads of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes – is said to be the capitation fee collected from students, primarily for medical seats. It is the largest seizure in Karnataka and the second largest in the country – the first being the Rs82 crore in cash seized from a private medical college in Puducherry.
The last time a massive amount was seized in the state was Rs19.5 crore in December 2015 from a medical college in Raichur, run by the Navodaya Educational Trust.
This apart, the institution in Whitefield, run by the Srinivasa Trust, has admitted to an unaccounted income of over Rs265 crore.
Following specific information and working on a tip-off, for over a month, officials from the I-T investigation directorate swooped on the institution in the early hours of Friday and searched the premises. A few other associated institutions in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, and the premises of key members of the group, were also searched.
“The three-day search, which started in the early hours of September 23, resulted in a massive haul of unaccounted currency totaling around Rs43 crore, recovered from the premises of the group.
The money is cash donations collected during admissions to the medical college. Apart from the unprecedented cash seizure, which is the largest in Karnataka, a large number of incriminating documents and other forms of evidence have also been seized. This has resulted in the immediate disclosure of unaccounted income of over Rs265 crore. Further scrutiny of the evidence is in progress,'' sources told Bangalore Mirror.
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