An Enforcement Directorate investigation has found that a mid-level income tax employee was able to access the computers of his superiors and create phoney tax deducted at source (TDS) refunds totaling millions of dollars.
In the money laundering investigation, the CBI has attached more than 30 properties in Maharashtra and Karnataka, totaling almost Rs 70 crore. It has seized 32 plots that were purchased using money taken from the government in the shape of TDS refunds totaling Rs 263 crore, TOI reported.
Tanaji Mandal Adhikari, a senior tax assistant, had earned the trust of his superiors, including the commissioner, to obtain their login information.
He would instruct his assistants to submit false TDS claims to the IT department, which he would then illegally clear by logging into senior officers’ accounts.
According to an ED’s press release, senior I.T. assistant Adhikari would deposit the stolen money into the bank account of a company called SB Enterprises that was under the control of a man by the name of Bhushan Patil after using his assistants to steal millions in fictitious TDS refunds.
In a year starting in November 2019, Adhikari manufactured a total of 12 fraudulent TDS refunds totaling Rs 263 crore that were credited to SB Enterprises’ account, according to an ED investigation. Refunds were given in relation to claims that were listed as pending from the assessment years 2007–2008 and 2008–2009.
The money was then transferred to shell companies and other accounts owned by Patil and his friends.
The properties seized are land in Lonavla, Khandala, Karjat, Pune, and Udupi, as well as apartments in Panvel and Mumbai and three luxury vehicles (BMW X7, Mercedes GLS400d, Audi Q7). These properties are registered in the names of Bhushan Patil, Rajesh Shetty, Sarika Shetty, Kriti Verma, and other associates of Adhikari.
With the new Rs 70 crore attachment and the earlier Rs 96 crore bank account freezing by the ED, assets and bank balances totaling Rs 166 crore have been frozen or attached. Adhikari was found out when the bank where the return money was being put raised an alert.
He and his friends are the subject of an ongoing corruption investigation by the CBI. The ED then filed a money laundering complaint as well.
According to sources, Adhikari’s friends set up phoney businesses and opened bank accounts in their names.
On Adhikari’s orders, the accused will submit TDS claims to I-T. After opening the accounts of his seniors on his computer with their login information, he would remove it from the office.
The CBI filed a FIR in the money laundering case after receiving a written complaint about it from the additional director general (vigilance)-CBDT.
