EOW cracked a major PAN India income tax refund scam

EOW cracked a major PAN India income tax refund scam being  operated from Delhi NCR area.

Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar arrested accused Neeraj Singla (28 years age), a resident of Faridabad, Haryana, on 09.09.2022 in connection with EOW PS Case No.15 dt.27.08.2022 U/s 420/467/468/471/120-B IPC/ Sec.66 IT Act. The arrested accused was produced before the Hon’ble Court of J.M.F.C, Faridabad and brought to Bhubaneswar on 3 days transit remand for his production before the Jurisdictional court i.e. the Court of Hon’ble SDJM, Bhubaneswar.

The accused is a Chartered Accountant (Intermediate) and one of the main conspirator and beneficiary of this PAN India TDS refund fraud. He owns following dubious firms/ companies.

1. M/S All India Transport services.

2. CKS Acoustics

3. M/S GDS associates.

He along with his other associates (mainly Chartered Accountants having deep knowledge/ loopholes of the system as well as internet/ online knowledge) runs this scam of income tax refund by forging/ faking the documents/ identity of other companies and thereby causing crores of loss to Govt exchequer. This is the first arrest in this case and effort is on to arrest other accused persons.

The case was registered on the written allegation of ITO, TDS-1, Bhubaneswar, to the effect that the TDS return in the form No-26-Q has been filed in the 1^st quarter of Financial Year 2020-21 by M/s IAMO Solution Pvt. Ltd. by giving false and fabricated chalan of Rs.2.70 Crores 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 the above noted accused Neeraj 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 Crores, 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.

Even though the returns of M/s IAMO Solution Pvt. Ltd. are generally filed at Bhubaneswar, however, this particular return has been filed at New Delhi. The accused in conspiracy with others has forged the challan dt.09.09.2020 of M/s IAMO Solution Pvt. Ltd. for an amount of Rs.2.70 Crores apprx., and on the basis of that forged challan the TDS refund has been claimed in favour of 32 beneficiaries/tax payers. The present accused has filed the ITR in respect of 7 tax payers/beneficiaries claiming the TDS refund. The challan so used is artificially created with no intrinsic value and as such is a bogus challan intentionally created for the purpose of claiming fraudulent gains.

During investigation, the mobile phone of the accused has been seized that contains so many incriminating communications relating to the fraudulent activities in claiming the TDS refund. The accused is the part of a well formed racket defrauding the government exchequer by making false claim for TDS refund by using the forged TDS challan.

The further investigation of the case is on.