As of Tuesday night, raids were carried out by I-T sleuths at six or seven locations, including the homes and churches of two pastors of Doaba – Bajinder Singh from Tajpur village in Jalandhar and Harpreet Deol from Khojewal village in Kapurthala.
All three raids began simultaneously at 6 am on Tuesday in Jalandhar, Amritsar, and New Chandigarh and ended at 10 pm the same day.
Unaccounted cash totaling Rs 2 crore was reportedly confiscated during the raids.
Additionally, the I-T teams seized some documents related to the pastors’ property and assets. Tax evasion, foreign funding violations, and other aspects of the investigation are being probed thoroughly, officials said.
Additionally, the department is investigating how donations are used by two churches in Kapurthala and Jalandhar.
“We are seeking documentary evidence of charity work performed by them, the overall use of donations collected and the setting up of offshore centers in Dubai, Mauritius, etc.,” an official supervising the raid said.
There is a huge church in Kapurthala run by Deol, while in Jalandhar The Church of Glory and Wisdom is run by Bajinder Singh.
The two pastors are Pentecostal and engage in miracle healing, mainly with Dalits and poor people. Organizing sermons and events in India and abroad regularly, both had set up international prayer lines.
