Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch has cracked a countrywide scam involving income tax (IT) refund, with the arrest of one Neeraj Singla from Delhi. Singla, a native of Faridabad has been booked under multiple Sections of the IPC and Section 66 of the IT Act and brought on transit remand to Odisha.
“Singla, a Chatered Accountant (Intermediate) will be produced before the SDJM, Bhubaneswar shortly. He is the main conspirator and beneficiary of the pan-India TDS refunc fraud,” the EOW stated.
He owns dubious firms/ companies such as – M/s All India Transport Services; CKS Acoustics; and M/s GDS Associates. Singla and his associates (mainly Chartered Accountants having deep knowledge/ loopholes of the system as well as internet/ online knowledge) ra this scam of income tax refund by forging/ faking the documents/ identity of other companies.
“This led to loss of several crore to the Government exchequer. This is the first arrest in this case and effort is on to arrest other accused persons,” the EOW stated. EOW registered a case in this connection based on the complaint of ITO, TDS-1, Bhubaneswar.
The complaint stated that return in Form No-26-Q has been filed in the 1st quarter of Financial Year 2020-21 by M/s IAMO Solution Pvt. Ltd. by giving false and fabricated chalan of Rs 2.70 crore in favour of 32 Tax payers as deduction of TDS on false payment of commission amounting to Rs 27 crores.
During investigation it was found that Singla in criminal conspiracy with others forged the TDS challan/return filed by M/s IAMO Solution Pvt. Ltd. during the financial year 2020-21 for Rs 2.70 crore, and the amount has been credited in the PAN of 32 beneficiaries/ tax payers.
“Out of the refund amounts, substantial amount has been diverted to the personal account of the accused and also to the accounts of his firms namely “M/s All India Transport Services”, “CKS Acoustics” and “M/s GDS Associates”. This apart, some amounts have been diverted to the accounts of some other firms which are ultimately managed by this accused. As found, total amount of Rs.17.77 lakhs has been misappropriated by this accused from the total fraud amount of Rs.1.40 Crores,” an EOW official said.
During investigation, the mobile phone of the accused has been seized. It contains many incriminating communications relating to the fraudulent activities in claiming the TDS refund. The accused is the part of a well-oiled racket defrauding the Government exchequer by making false claim for TDS refund by using the forged TDS challan. Further investigation is on, the EOW added.
