State Income Tax department conducts raid at Raiganj Central Cooperative Bank

Senior officials of the Income Tax department raided the main Branch of the Raiganj Central Cooperative Bank on Friday night and asked for the details of the accounts in where more than Rs 2.5 lakh had been deposited after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

Officials of the state Income Tax department’s Jalpaiguri division visited the main Branch of the bank after receiving specific information. After the IT department’s visit, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the bank said that the department has already submitted the details of half the accounts in which Rs 2.5 lakh or more were deposited in the past one week. The CEO was present at the main Branch when the IT officials checked the documents.

“We will provide the details about the remaining accounts shortly. All the papers are ready,” said the official.

It was learnt that there are altogether 46,640 accounts in 16 Branches. In the period between November 10 & 13, altogether Rs 58.21 crore was deposited. This has raised serious questions on how such a huge amount has been deposited in this bank since the announcement of demonetisation of old currency notes was made by the Centre. The question also arises on how or from where the customers of the bank, who are mostly farmers and labourers, get the money from.

The IT department has started a thorough probe in this regard. The officials are examining the transactions in the past few days. They were also investigating if the entries were made on back date.