It was a Rs 106 crore worth catch. The raid on Dr Uday Salunkhe, member of the governing council of Shikshan Prasarak (Shi Pra) Mandali as well as the director of Welingkar Institute in Mumbai on November 20, 2010, yielded exactly that much. However, the very Income Tax department, in 2014, reassessed the worth of the seized assets to Rs 30 crore.

A similar raid earlier in July 21, 2008, on Anant Mate, the vice-chairman of the governing council of Shi Pra Mandali, had found him to be in possesssion of Rs 22 lakh unaccounted money.

In both the cases, Shi Pra Mandali submitted before IT department (letter dated March 18, 2013) that the persons in question were its office-bearers, and that the onus of money involved lies on the institution.

Shi Pra Mandali, in existence for over 125 years, has its head office in Pune and has 40-odd educational institutions in cities including Pune, Mumbai, Solapur, Ratnagiri and Benguluru.

Members of the civic society, who moved Bombay high court against Shi Pra Mandali on September 21, 2013, were also pointing out to these anomalies in the conduct of the educational trust.

From the questions they raised, it could be augured that these governing council members too were probably in the dark about the conduct of the institution. "What was the urgency for Shi Pra Mandali to own the responsibility of the raids held on individuals, since it resulted in tax liability of Rs 25 crore on the institution," they wanted to know. And, the bigger question involved is, if the tax liablility is of Rs 25 crore, what was the income involved?

They wanted to know as to why the 'income' has not been shown in any of the accounts with Shi Pra Mandali and why the governing council chairman Abhay Dadhe or Mate were hesitant in furnishing the details even after the same was sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

They also took Shi Pra Mandali to task for failing to hold the annual general body meeting for six consecutive years, depriving the members of the platform where they could raise such issues.

Abhay Dadhe and Anant Mate, in response to dna queries, revealed before Zee Media Corporation Ltd team on February 18, this year that there are 50-odd cases pending against the Shi Pra Mandali or its institutions in various courts across the country. They assured that they would not hide anything and requested "some time" to consult their lawyer in Mumbai.

The Zee-dna team, which is in possesssion of all files pertaining to IT raids and other related documents, has been waiting ever since, only to find the trust office-bearers seeking more and more time. After the duo came up with a fresh date of May 31, dna conveyed its inability to wait for so long and decided to go ahead with publishing its findings.

"Both Dadhe and Mate are involved in financial irregularities, and are not forwarding any information even after we sought the same under the RTI Act," said advocate Mihir Prabudesai, who approached High Court against Shi Pra Mandali. "The IT department had imposed a tax of Rs 25 crore on Shi Pra Mandali, taking in to account the previous dues and cumulative liabilities. Two of its current governing council members, Jayant Kirad and Satish Pawar, have pointed out that the trust has been paying Rs 8-10 lakh as tax dues every month, which is well affecting its expansion plans," pointed out Prabudesai.

"Similarly, during the raid in which Rs 22 lakh unaccounted money was found in possesssion of Mate, it could be established that the money could have been collected as capitation fee or donaton; then why the same was not being deposited in bank accounts of the trust?," he asked.

Damodar Bhandari, another petitioner, asks why the trust owned up the financial liabilities when the Income Tax department had conducted raids only against individuals. "If Income Tax department has levied Rs 25 crore as tax, where has the income gone," asks Bhandari.

(to be continued)