Bengaluru: Self-styled spiritual guru V. Vijayakumar Naidu, or Kalki Bhagavan as he is popularly known, recently faced a series of raids by the Income Tax department. Tax sleuths found that his ashram had hoarded as much as Rs 93 crore in cash, while an estimated Rs 409 crore of unaccounted wealth was found at other premises in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
“US currency alone is about $2.5 million (approximately Rs 18 crore). This is apart from other foreign currency. About 88 kg of undeclared gold jewellery, valued at Rs 26 crore, and diamonds amounting to 1,271 carats, worth about Rs 5 crore, have also been seized. The undisclosed income of the group detected so far is estimated at more than Rs 500 crore,” the I-T department said in a press release.
There are numerous murmurs about the reasons behind the raids on Kalki Bhagavan’s properties — one political leader who did not wish to be identified told ThePrint that his proximity to an important political leader in Andhra Pradesh could be a prime reason, as could multiple allegations of money laundering.
ThePrint tried to reach Kalki Bhagavan and his disciples at the ashram for a comment through the lone landline number listed online, but there was no response.
