NAGPUR: Buldhana Urban Co-operative Credit Society, the country’s largest, has come under the taxman’s scanner for suspected money-laundering. A team of Income Tax officials has conducted a search and seizure operation on around 15 premises that include the society’s offices as well as those of its promoter Radheyshyam Chandak and other office-bearers. Some premises related to society’s top officials in Pune, Nasik, and Akola were also covered in the raid. Some godowns owned by the society, used to store agriculture commodities, were also raided.
It is estimated that the society has deposits of Rs 1,000 crore which is higher than many urban co-operative banks. With around one lakh depositors, it has 156 branches in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It has branches in Nagpur too. Radheshyam Chandak, who has been chairman for more than 20 years, also runs several educational insitutions and is known as a philanthropist in Buldhana. The society had recently come up with a proposal to take over Nagpur’s beleaguered Samata Nagari Sahakari Bank that is facing RBI restrictions.
