Raid at Muthoot Group: Main offices, family house targeted

Kozhencherry (Kerala), Aug 5: The Income tax department, along with the enforcement, raidedall the offices of the Muthoot Group in Kerala and across the country. The house of the Muthoot family has also been targetted. Among the agencies that have been raided include Muthoot George (fincorp), Muthoot Pappachan, Mini Muthoot, and Muthoot Mercantile.

The raid started early in the morning and continued till 10:30 am in Thiruvananthapuram.Muthoot Finance has its headquarters in Kolenchery, but has over 5000 branches in 25 states. The raid took place at the same time in corporate offices and branches.

Inside sources, however, say that the main target is Muthoot Pappachan. The Gold finance company is alleged to have not paid taxes properly. Other allegations include irregularities in gold loan and fund acceptance and encouraging black money deposit.

Raids were conducted on information of illegal wealth amassing although none of the investigating agencies have disclosed any evidence. The stock market of Muthoot Finance slipped after news of the raid. While some walked away from the branches, there were other anxious customers who tried to contact the branch after the news of the raid broke out.

Earlier, the Reserve Bank of India had banned the gold finance company from taking deposits from public. It had barred Muthoot Fincorp from collecting deposits in the form of fixed deposits, cumulative deposits and special public deposits from the public.

OneIndia News