CBI raids IT officials, CAs in 3 states

Central Bureau of Investigation has swooped on senior Income Tax officials, chartered accountants and advocates in three states and registered cases against some for allegedly duping the government of Rs 87 lakh (Rs 8.7 million) by issuing fake certificates of tax deduction at source.

A CBI spokesman said 11 places in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab were searched by the CBI sleuths and large number of documents, including blank cheques of different banks, rubber stamps of fictitious companies, ledgers showing TDS refunds, photocopies of forged TDS certificates and Income Tax files of bogus companies.

The spokesman said on preliminary examination, the seized documents and articles strengthen the evidence connecting the accused persons to the crime and also reveal the conspiracy among public servants and private persons.

The magnitude of the fraud was enormous and related to the states of Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Haryana, he said and added the documents also clearly bring out the nexus between some Income Tax officials, chartered accountants and advocates.

According to the First Information Report, five Income Tax officials -- R S Ranga, V K Jain, Ashok Kilayan, Anil Singla and Pawan Sharma -- had allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with the objective to defraud the Income Tax department.

The two chartered accountants filed Income Tax returns of ficticious firms and claimed refund on the basis of forged TDS certificates thus defrauding the government of Rs 43.38 lakh (Rs 4.3 million), the spokesman said.

In the second case, the CBI alleged that four Income Tax offcials -- M C Sharma, A K Mehta, Dharam Singh Narwal and V K Gupta entered into a criminal conspiracy with two chartered accountants S K Bansal and Naresh Kumar Gupta and allegedly prepared and filed Income Tax returns in the name of some ficticious firms for different assessment years and claimed refund of Rs 11.97 lakh (Rs 1.2 million) by showing fake TDS certificates, the spokesman alleged.

The CBI registered a third case against Ranga, Paramjit Singh, Hari Chand, Sadhu Singh and Ram Lubhava (all Income Tax officials), advocates Amarjit Singh and Hukum Chand Gupta and chartered accountant Naresh Kumar Gupta for claiming tax refunds on the basis of fake TDS certificates.

The spokesman said all the accused allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy and defrauded the government of Rs 33.37 lakh (Rs 3.3 million).