US treasury bonds seized from Tirupur consultant likely fake

Zeebiz Bureau

New Delhi: The documents seized by Income-Tax officials believed to be US Treasury bonds worth Rs 28,000 crore during a raid on the premises of a businessman in neighbouring Tirupur district are most likely fake, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Basing on the reports that US does not sell a USD1-billion treasury bond, The Hindu has stated that the US has not issued any with a denomination as high as USD1 billion.

Quoting a picture displayed by the Reuters news agency, the newspaper said that the Treasury bond could well be a fake one.

The Income-Tax department carried out on the residence of Ramalingam at Upputhurai Palayam village on December 31 night, official sources said Thursday.

Ramalingam is involved in the business of groundnut peeling equipment and used to make frequent trips to countries like Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia.

A year ago he had applied for sanction to set up the refinery in Thondi at a cost of Rs.1,000 crore.

The Income-Tax department had kept a close watch on the movement and activities of Ramalingam for the last few months culminating in the raids, they said.

The I-T officials from Chennai and Combatore again returned Wednesday and checked Ramalingam's accounts in various banks.

With PTI Inputs