I-T raids Kerala evangelist, his churches for 'siphoning' donations

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, Nov 6

The Income Tax Department has raided multiple premises of a self-styled evangelist from Kerala who allegedly “siphoned off” tax exempted funds and donations received from abroad for the poor and channelled them into real estate and personal investments, the CBDT said on Friday. The searches were carried out on Thursday at 66 premises in states, including Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka and Telangana.

In the official statement, the CBDT said action was taken against a well-known self-styled evangelist of Thiruvalla (Kerala) and his group of various trusts that enjoy exemption under the I-T Act of 1961 as charitable or religious trusts.

Even as in the official statement the CBDT did not disclose the identity of the group, sources in the I-T Department said it was Believer’s Eastern Church.

“The group operates places of worship, a number of schools and colleges across the country, a medical college and a hospital in Kerala,” the statement read.

It said “unexplained cash of about 6 crore has also been found during the raids including Rs 3.85 crore in a place of worship in Delhi” and “substantial electronic computing and data storage has been found, which is being examined”.

The board said searches were carried out on the basis of “credible information” that the group had received donations from foreign countries ostensibly for helping the poor and the destitute, and for evangelical purposes but was actually siphoning off such tax-exempted funds in cash to engage in unaccounted cash transactions for personal and other illegal expenses in real estate transactions.

It said the Thiruvalla-based group operates about 30 trusts, registered across the country, and most of them “exist only on paper and have been found to be used for routing unaccounted funds and for accommodation (hawala) transactions”.