The government on Friday announced that it has received 'vital information' on suspicious transactions post-demonetisation. The data provided by 13 banks has revealed suspicious transactions carried out by 2,09,032 companies, which were already blacklisted by the Registrar of Companies earlier this year.
"It may be recalled that after being struck off, operation of the bank accounts of these 2,09,032 suspicious companies were restricted for discharge of their liabilities only," the government said in a release on Friday.
The government said that data received from the banks pertains to about 5,800 companies (out of more than 2 lakh that were struck off) involving 13,140 accounts. "This in itself is a revealing figure," the government added.
Data shows that companies have been found to have more than 100 bank accounts to their names, with the highest being a company with 2,134 accounts.
"The data pertaining to the pre-demonetisation account balances and transactions conducted from the accounts of these companies during the demonetisation period is even more startling," the release said.
Excluding the loan accounts, these companies were having a meagre balance of Rs 22.05 crore to their credit before the announcement of demonetisation on November 8, 2016. However, after the announcement till the date of their being struck off by Registrar of Companies, these companies have altogether deposited a whopping Rs 4,573.87 crore in their accounts and withdrawn an equally large amount of Rs 4,552 crore, the government said in the release.
"Disturbing factors have been identified of companies having multiple accounts with miniscule or negative balance as on November 8, 2016, which have then deposited and withdrawn amounts going in several crores from these accounts. The accounts were thereafter again left as dormant accounts with paltry balance," the official release added.
In its release, the government stated that agencies have been asked to complete necessary investigation in a time bound manner.
