(This story originally appeared in on Dec 16, 2016)

NEW DELHI : In a little over a month after the announcement of demonetisation on November 8, the income tax department carried out a record 586 searches across the country which yielded more than Rs 300 crore in cash seizures, Rs 79 crore in new currency notes of Rs 2,000, and unaccounted income of Rs 2,600 crore.The highest seizure has been from Tamil Nadu where the tax department recovered more than Rs 100 crore in cash in one single search in Chennai . The total cash seizure from Tamil Nadu has been in excess of Rs 140 crore besides gold seizure worth Rs 52 crore.Similarly, a lawyer's premises in Delhi was recently searched which led to recovery of about Rs 14 crore in cash. The same lawyer had declared unaccounted income of Rs 125 crore in October. Two weeks ago, tax officials had visited his bank and seized around Rs 19 crore in his accounts believed to be unaccounted.I-T raids on Wednesday on Bank of Maharashtra in Pune revealed that 15 lockers were acquired by one person in August at the bank's Parvati branch. The 15 lockers yielded Rs 9.85 crore in cash - Rs 8 crore in new Rs 2,000 notes and the rest in Rs 100 notes.Related searches by I-T officials in the city yielded another Rs 94.50 lakh of which Rs 80 lakh was in new currency notes. The total seizure from the Pune operation was Rs 10.80 crore, out of which Rs 8.8 crore was in new currency notes.I-T officials said two lockers were operated 12 times each post-demonetisation on different dates in November and December by a single person who was the authorised signatory.The department has checked bank records and CCTV footage for the last one month, which showed big bags being freely carried in and out of the bank by the accused. Bank officials are likely to be questioned.A Bank of Maharashtra official on Wednesday said that it allowed the company only two transactions of Rs 50,000 each since November 8. It is not clear if the company has more accounts in other banks and what the source of this massive stash was.The tax department has cracked one source from where the conversion is believed to have happened. Sources said that not all the notes were in series and most are believed to have been siphoned off when exchange of up to Rs 4,500 was allowed.Another tax official said, "The company's representative had all the locker keys and he admitted it belonged to the firm and they were converting." The firm's officials could not be reached and emails to two of its US-based directors went unanswered.