Accused in 1,200-crore sales tax scam surrender
Two more accused in the Rs 1,200 crore sales tax scam—Hanmant Singh (A3) and Venugopala Swamy (A4)—surrendered in the judicial court here on Wednesday.
Bodhan: Two more accused in the Rs 1,200 crore sales tax scam—Hanmant Singh (A3) and Venugopala Swamy (A4)—surrendered in the judicial court here on Wednesday.
The scam came to light when an unidentified person passed on information regarding the payment of money to the traders on submission of fake challans of VAT and CST. It is estimated that nearly Rs 1,200 crore has been paid to the traders, petrol pump dealers, rice millers, vehicle dealers among others. It is suspected that the scam has been going on since 1998. However, the large scale reconciliation has occurred between 2010 and 2015, it is felt.
Commissioner Anil Kumar is personally supervising the whole scam to unearth the fraudsters. Regarding the modus operandi of the scam, the officials say that the challan comprises three copies with the bank keeping on copy and sending two copies to the Treasury and the CTO. Every month these challan copies should be verified for reconciliation to confirm the revenue. However, it has not been done for several years.
The traders submit the fake challans directly in the CTO’s office claiming that they had paid the tax without actually paying it. If the investigation is intensified the roots of the scam might be found in the State capital, a financial expert said.
It may be recalled that another accused (A5) assistant commercial tax officer (ACTO) Daravat Vijayakrishna surrendered in the judicial court here on Tuesday. It is expected that there would be more surrenders in near future. Though the CID is investigating the case, the accused have been meticulously planning to surrender in the court. ACTO Vijayakrishna, who applied for anticipatory bail in the court, was rejected and the judge ordered his arrest immediately. The police arrested him and sent him to Bodhan sub jail on remand.
Other accused—tax consultant Sivaraj and his son Sunil—went underground and it is likely they might apply for anticipatory bail sooner than later. However, they would also surrender in the court as there is no chance of getting anticipatory bail to them.
The rice millers, who say that they are actually victims of the scam, express readiness to pay the tax retrospectively. However, they fear that they would be arrested on the charges of cheating the government.The CTO office had already served notices to the one hundred traders and would be served to some more soon.
The CID officials are planning to apply for custody of ACTO Vijayakrishna on Thursday to find out the details behind the scam.
