The Income Tax department launched a raid on Kerala’s Believer’s Church citing tax evasion claims. Simultaneous raids at the offices and residences of those associated with evangelist K P Yohannan’s Believers Eastern Church. The raids were carried out at various locations in Kerala’s Kottayam and Pathanamthitta over alleged tax evasion. The raids, that began at 7 AM, are still underway.
The officials seized ₹54 lakh from the boot of a vehicle parked there and also some phones. The officers attributed the surprise raids to some ‘specific inputs’ on tax evasion and unauthorised foreign transactions. The details of the case would be shared at a later stage, they added. The IT Department reported this to be one of the biggest financial scams involving foreign funding.
This Believers Eastern Church is a wing of Gospel For Asia (GFA), a Christian missionary organisation that is “committed to seeing communities transformed through the love of Christ demonstrated in word and deed”.
In 2017, the Ministry of Home Affairs had barred the Believers Church and three other associated NGOs from accepting foreign funds. Apparently the Church received more than ₹1,000 crore in foreign funds over an 18-year span.