The Income Tax Department on Wednesday conducted raids at 28 properties across Tamil Nadu belonging to evangelist Paul Dhinakaran over alleged tax evasion. The places that were raided include Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences in Coimbatore and Christian missionary ‘Jesus Calls’ ministry in Chennai.
Paul Dhinakaran is the son of a preacher and Jesus Calls founder D.G.S Dhinakaran and Chancellor of the Karunya Institute of Technology.
According to the Jesus Calls website, “The Jesus Calls TV ministry telecasts 400 programs a month, in 10 different languages across the globe, containing real-life stories from people who have overcome their troubles through faith and prayer along with hope.” Paul Dhinakaran is also chancellor of Karunya Institute of Technology in India, “founded in 1986 where 8000 students study Science and Technology, Engineering, Arts, Media, and Management courses”.
Apart from tax evasion, the income tax department believes that Jesus Calls had not disclosed all foreign funds that it received and also had been hiding investments. “Our teams are searching the premises now. We expected to know about seizure and tax evasion once we finish the searches,” an IT official said.
Regarding the raids, Legal Rights Observatory (LRO) tweeted, “#SUCCESS IT Dept @IncomeTaxIndia raids underway on 28 premises of evangelist #PaulDhinakaran in Tamil Nadu, over alleged tax evasion. The premises include Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Jesus Calls ministry. #LRO was pursuing his pending Tax evasion case!”
Exposing the irregularities committed by Paul Dhinakaran, LRO had earlier tweeted, “#FCRAViolation Fake Prophet Paul Dhinkaran’s CogWheel Trust, Peniel Orphanage, Buckley Orphanage, YMCA got Rs Cr for kids, used it to squat 900 acres of #Elephant corridor forest land, paid himself in millions, wrote @HMOIndia to cancel/ prosecute those NGOs #ConversionMafia”
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