Patna: Income Tax Department has started investigation after a rural woman deposited Rs4 million (Dh215,473) in her Jan Dhan account a week’s time after the Indian government launched demonetisation drive on November 8.

The woman identified as Sitara Devi, a resident of Nehru Nagar locality in Bhojpur district claimed having earned the money from her milk business. Not convinced at her logic, IT authorities have frozen her bank account and also seized her bank passbook.

During interrogation, the woman reportedly told the IT authorities that the money deposited in the bank was her savings made through selling milk claiming she ran the dairy business with five cows.

Part of the money, she claimed, also came from the profits from the business of her husband Chhotu Yadav who supplies grain to the local Bhojpur prison.

As per the woman’s claim, she has a joint family with 60 members. She said she deposited the money in one account in the absence of proper information. “I never put the money earned through dairy business in the bank but had to deposit it in the bank after the government recalled high value Indian currency notes,” Sitara Devi told the IT officials.

But the IT officials are not convinced with the woman’s reply and have launched a thorough probe into the matter after freezing her bank account. The authorities have also seized her bank passbook.

Authorities said the Jan Dhan account of the woman opened with Zero balance had no transaction made in the past 18 months since its opening but suddenly after demonetisation drive, it saw a huge deposit of Rs4 million barely one week against the maximum deposit limit of Rs50,000 in such accounts.

As per report, a total of 27 million bank accounts were opened under Jan Dhan scheme in Bihar in which around Rs60 billion were deposited before currency ban. Soon after the currency ban, how, the deposit of money in these account touched a whopping Rs280 billion, astounding the IT authorities.

Meanwhile, the IT authorities have also begun investigation into a total of 972 bank accounts which saw huge deposit of money post currency ban.