Hyderabad: Income Tax raids are being conducted since Monday, March 10, at several centers of Sri Chaitanya Educational Institutions across India, including Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai over alleged financial irregularities.
The massive raid is simultaneously taking place over 30 campuses across India after IT officials claim that the popular educational institution collected large sums of money from students in cash but failed to report the transactions or pay taxes.
According to local media, Sri Chaitanya institutions generated hundreds of crores annually through tuition, examination, and admission fees. The authorities maintained two separate software systems for internal transactions.
One was used exclusively for cash transactions, where students paid fees and received receipts. Around 75 percent of the transactions reportedly occurred this way, with allegations that students were often pressured to pay in cash instead of through digital modes.
This percentage of the transactions was never reported to the government. What was reported was the remaining 25 percent, which was mostly online, IT officials allege.
The IT department is now scrutinizing these software to track the flow of unaccounted money. On Monday, eight special teams raided the Sri Chaitanya’s Madhapur branch, also the headquarters, and so far have seized 2 crore. Reports suggest that the raids will continue till tomorrow.
Sri Chaitanya Educational Institutions is considered as one of the most popular educational institutions, mainly in the two Telugu states with a large chain of schools, junior colleges, hostels, coaching institutions for IT-JEE, NEET, EAMCET and UPSC-CS preparation and degree colleges across India. It was founded in 1986 by BS Rao and his wife, Jhansi Lakshmi Bai.
