Raids expose massive tax evasion by chit firm

However, sources said there are allegations of political undertones behind the raid as Gokulam Gopalan, the chairman of the company, had been a strong contender against Vellapalli Nateshan, who controls the SNDP, a BJP ally in Kerala. 

The I-T department raided 80 places both in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, including the house of Gokulam Gopalan in Chennai, Kochi and his ancestral house in Vadakara near Kozhikode. I-T officials also claimed to have seized several incriminating documents during the raid. “The raids will continue in the coming days. The extent of tax evasion can be assessed only after we verify the seized documents,” an I-T official told DTNext. The raids started at 6 am and went on till late in the evening.

Sources said the I-T department is also checking details of financial transactions between the chit fund company and a few prominent politicians in Tamil Nadu. The department has been trying to trace the money which actor-politician Sarath Kumar had allegedly taken from the AIADMK (Amma) faction for supporting TTV Dinakaran at the RK Nagar by-poll. Sources said the officials got a whiff of some investments of Tamil Nadu politicians with the Gokulam Chit Fund and that had prompted the raids. 

Meanwhile, sources close to Gokulam Gopalan claimed that the BJP, which shares a close relationship with Vellapalli Nateshan’s political party Bharath Dharma Jana Sena, has used the IT department to settle scores with Gokulam Gopalan, who had once tried to end the prominence of Vellapalli Nateshan in SNDP in Kerala. 

Meanwhile, the Gokulam finance corporation office located in Tiruchy was also raided on Wednesday. Sources said, five officials from the I-T department from Coimbatore arrived at the chit fund office located at Chathiram bus stand at 8.30 pm, searched the office for three hours and seized documents and computer hard discs. Similarly, officials from Tiruchy office raided their Madurai office, I-T department sources said.