Income tax officials raid Kotak Bank branch, bank denies fake accounts

The Income Tax Department on Friday questioned the manager of a Kotak Mahindra Bank branch here in connection with two of its customer accounts, officials said. According to a police official, a “raid” was conducted in the morning on the Kasturba Gandhi Marg branch in the heart of Delhi. Rohit Rao, official spokesperson of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said in a statement: “IT department has visited the bank’s branch in connection with survey of two of its customers and their related accounts. [caption id=“attachment_657793” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “No KYC deficiencies were noted in these two customers. The IT department did question the Branch Manager and no adverse report has been submitted to the bank so far.” Rao said the bank had a “robust system of regularly and proactively filing necessary reports with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for all large transactions. “The bank denies that there were any fake accounts. The bank is extending full cooperation to the investigating authorities.” Another private sector bank, Axis Bank has been in news after income tax department and enforcement directorate have detected illegal activities at some of its branches after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. The bank’s Ahmedabad branch was raided on Thursday and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) put transactions worth Rs 89 crore under scanner. The raid was conducted at Mayamnagar branch of the bank and the ED scrutinised 19 accounts. The ED had earlier registered a money laundering case in the alleged forging of a customer’s identity to conduct huge illegal transactions in the branch of Noida for conversion of black money into white post demonetisation. The bank, according to a PTI report, had suspended 24 employees and 50 accounts after the I-T raids unearthed such illegal activities. With IANS