The Income Tax Department on Friday conducted searches at the premises of a group which runs a prominent chit fund company and other businesses in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The group is also into real-estate, media, hospitality and financial consultancy. The searches were held at almost 30 premises of the group including residences and offices throughout Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state, official sources said.

“It was noticed that this group had deposited approximately Rs 90 crore in cash in various bank accounts,” the officials said. They added, chit-fund company resorted to acceptance of huge amounts of demonetised high value currency notes during the month of November 2016, post demonetisation.

During searches evidences were unearthed indicating acceptance of demonetised high value currency in the guise of chit subscriptions with a clear back dating prior to November 8, 2016, the officials maintained. On November 8 last year, the Central Government had announced the decision to withdraw the high value currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.