Udupi: IT Officials Raid Manipal University Administrative Office

Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Apr 13: In a surprise development, income tax officials swooped down simultaneously on the administrative office of Manipal University, and the residence of a leading educationist from the district. The raid, which began early morning, continued till late night, reliable sources said.

It is also learnt that Bangalore office of the university was also raided at the same time. A team of nearly 40 officials, which arrived from New Delhi, with the assistance of officials from Mangalore, proceeded to the university building and the educationist’s residence near Tiger Circle in Manipal, after splitting themselves into two groups.

The team reportedly is pooling information over the entire gamut of financial operations of the university. It is concentrating on the system of giving admission to non-resident Indians into the courses being run by the university, capitation fee being collected by it, etc. A source in the university also informed, that the special team is also making enquiries about the large scale purchase of land being conducted in the name of the university, in and around Udupi and Manipal.

The team has come fully prepared with lot of details, which were collected by it beforehand, it is said. So far, no information is available about the names of persons interrogated by the teams, or the documents seized by them. Even after the raid progressed during the day, many in the university had no inkling about the ongoing raid.

Some university officials however, have preferred to play down the raid, by saying that it was done in normal course, and that the income tax officials are checking documents relating to financial transactions.

The income tax officials have also raided offices and residences of real estate bigwigs in Bangalore and other places in Karnataka, and other individuals with large incomes on which proper income tax was purportedly not paid by them.