Patna,(BiharTimes): Income tax (I-T) on Thursday carried out raids at four residential and commercial premises of Anwer Ahmed, former RJD MLC and chairman of the Bihar Awami Cooperative Bank.
Anwer was till 2015 considered close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
It needs to be informed that former Prime Minister I K Gujral had resided at his house while contesting the 1991 Lok Sabha election from Patna on a Janata Dal ticket. His house was used as the postal address of Gujral. It was other thing that the then Election Commissioner, T N Seshan, countermanded the election.
Income Tax department detected the use of over 60, what it called bogus bank accounts to launder huge amount of black money after demonetisation.
He also heads Al-Rabia Memorial Educational and Welfare Trust, Mother’s International Technology and Management Institute and Mother’s International Academy located in Sabzibagh and Phulwarisharif localities of Patna.
Anwer was for about a quarter century considered very close to Lalu Prasad and was even called “kebab mantri” because of this dish he used to serve to RJD chief.
According to I-T official the raid was conducted following complaints that Anwer was using the Awami Cooperative Bank and other establishments to launder scrapped Rs 500 and 1000 notes.
Sources also said Anwer’s relatives and associates Farhad Ahmad, Arshad Ahmad and Parvez Alam are also key suspects in the case.
It is alleged that the accounts have been opened in the names of labourers and workers in the unorganised sector, who have no knowledge of it. Demonetised notes were deposited in these accounts and care was taken to keep them below Rs 2.5 lakh in each case to evade the I-T, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) scanners. The money was withdrawn, too, again adhering to the weekly withdrawal limit of Rs 24,000.
The three other establishments Anwer runs, trusts that are exempted from income tax under provision 12(A) of the I-T Act, were used to receive demonetised notes as donation and then laundered through the banking channels.
