GUWAHATI, Jan 4 - The demonetisation of old currency notes led to some unusual incidents in the North East region. Apart from depositing cash in the accounts of others, there was a sudden craze for jewellery as the sales in such shops increased immediately after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of the old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes.
Sources in the Income Tax Department told The Assam Tribune that officers of the department are keeping a watch on the bank accounts, which recorded unusual transactions after the demonetisation and this led to some interesting revelation.
The sale of jewellery increased sharply in the first few days after demonetisation and the bank deposits of the jewellery shops also recorded sharp increase in those days. This phenomenon proved that a large number of people, who kept unaccounted cash in old currency notes, rushed to the jewellery shops immediately after the Prime Minister announced demonetisation. One jewellery shop in Barak Valley, interestingly, recorded transactions more than the stock and the matter is now being investigated.
Some industrialists immediately bought large amounts of locally available raw materials. Their records proved that they had never bought such huge amounts in the past and it was evident that such people had also kept large amounts in cash with them and they wanted to dispose off the same. It was apparent that they had kept unaccounted cash, which could not be deposited in the banks. There have also been records of sudden rise in investments in the stock market.
Meanwhile, one coal dealer in Lower Assam opened 27 accounts in Bongaigaon branch of the Axis Bank in the name of his employees and tried to deposit an amount of Rs 40 lakh. When the Income Tax Department detected it, he admitted his action and offered to pay the tax for the amount.
In another interesting case, 500 accounts were opened in one particular branch of the Central Bank of India. However, no deposits were made in the accounts. It is suspected that some persons opened the accounts in the names of others to deposit cash but they could not do so for some reason or the other, sources said.
Sources also pointed out that since demonetisation, a large number of accounts of tea garden workers have been opened in a number of bank branches near the tea gardens to make the payments through banks. But in this case, the bank branch is located in a town and not near any tea garden, while no deposits were made in the accounts.