From monk to billionaire: I-T raids find Rs 500 crore unaccounted money from Kalki Bhagwan’s ashrams

The Income-Tax (I-T) department which conducted simultaneous raids on the properties of self-styled godman Kalki Bhagwan in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has found unaccounted Rs 500 crore from his ashrams.

The income tax department, in a statement, said, "On October 16, the income tax department conducted search action under the Income-Tax act 1961 in the case of conglomerates of trusts and companies run year-round 'wellness courses' and training programmes in philosophy, spirituality, etc., at various sprawling residential campuses."

"The courses attract residential customers from abroad and the group earns substantial receipts in foreign exchange. There was intelligence that the group had been suppressing its receipts, which are ploughed into investment in huge tracts of landed property in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and in investments abroad," it stated.

The I-T further



said that the search proceedings revealed considerable evidence on various centres of the ashram regularly suppressing its receipts and of key employees who maintained records of collecting cash that was kept outside the accounts.

Apart from these irregularities, the I-T department found US currency of about $2.5 million dollars (approximately Rs 18 crore). "About 88 kg of undeclared gold jewellery, valued at Rs 26 crore, diamonds amount to 1,271 carats worth about Rs 5 crore, has also been seized. The undisclosed income of the group detected so far is estimated at more than Rs 500 crore," the I-T statement read.

Seventy-year-old Vijay Kumar is a self-styled godman who claimed himself to be the 10th avatar of Vishnu-Kalki in the early 1990s.

The institution - Jeevashram - was started in the mid-1980s by Vijay Kumar, who was a former clerk in Life Insurance Corporation, to provide an "alternative education system to his disciples".

Along the same time, Vijay Kumar also started his Oneness University. The trust of the ashram is run by Vijay Kumar, his wife Padmavati, and son NKV Krishna.

The IT department began the raids on October 16 on over 40 premises in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Varadaiahpalem near Chittoor.