NRI
quotas in engineering and medical colleges converted
into black money of 100 crores
PUNE, July 22, 2005
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
Day Two of the Income Tax raids on Maharashtra’s
top eight engineering and medical colleges and already
more skeletons are tumbling out in the form of cash
in crores, jewellery and FD receipts. But what has
surprised I-T officials is the amount of black money
that education barons had amassed as capitation fees
for admissions in the management and NRI quotas: Rs
100 crore.
I-T Director General (Investigations) Shiv Kumar
Sharma confirmed that most of the education institutions
raided also embarked on a massive cover-up operation.
For instance, he said, the most common tactic used
was to divert the black money generated from donations
towards development and using it on constructing buildings
and adding infrastructure.
Taxmen began their operations yesterday and targeted
eight prominent engineering and medical colleges,
all run by highly-influential educationists and politicians
including State Cooperative Minister Patangrao Kadam
and former MPCC chief Ranjit Deshmukh.
Today, Sharma was ready with a preliminary list of
findings. While Rs 5 crore in cash and jewellery worth
lakhs of rupees have been seized, FD receipts seized
ran into crores.
This apart, there were ample receipts of donations
and capitation fees accepted for admissions and documents
showing investments in the range of Rs 25-30 crore.
Also, at least three benami accounts have been unearthed.
Sharma said Rs 3.5 crore in cash were seized from
the house of a middleman in Pune. From another middleman’s
house, jewellery estimated to be worth Rs 40 lakh
was seized.
The I-T department, he said, has now learnt that
‘‘advance booking’’ was being
made for seats from management and NRI quotas
