BHOPAL: The Income tax department has intensified its investigations into the post-demonetisation financial dealings of cooperative banks. It is being probed how these banks got deposits of upwards of Rs 164 cr in just four days after announcement of demonetisation.
The Income Tax Department has discovered that more than Rs 25 lakh was deposited in different accounts in 13 primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) in Vidisha district. Investigations are on to identify the persons who had made the huge deposits.
There are 33 cooperative societies in 13 districts in which Rs 25 lakh or more was deposited after 8 November. Most of these societies are in the Vidisha district and are controlled by powerful politicians.
The I-T department has also sought information from coop banks about persons who had deposited more than Rs 25 lakh. There are five persons who had deposited more than Rs 25 lakh in coop banks before the banks were barred from depositing old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes on November 13. In this period, one person each in Bhopal, Betul and Chhindwara and two in Dhar had deposited more than Rs 25 lakh in their bank accounts.
The Income tax department is also gearing up to issue notices to those who had deposited a big sums in cooperative banks through Bachat Bank, other cooperative societies or firms. The MP State Cooperative Bank (Apex Bank) has provided a list of all persons who had deposited more than Rs 25 lakh to I-T department. Now, the department is going to issue notices to these people. They may also be quizzed.
