Income tax refund scam busted in Delhi NCR; EOW Bhubaneswar nabs 1

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar has busted a major PAN India Income Tax refund scam that was being operated from Delhi NCR area.

Neeraj Singla (28), a resident of Faridabad, Haryana was arrested in this connection on September 9 and brought to Bhubaneswar on three days transit remand. EOW today said the accused is a Chartered Accountant (Intermediate) and one of the main conspirators and beneficiaries of this PAN India TDS refund fraud.

“The accused Neeraj owns several dubious firms/ companies. 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 the documents/ identity of other companies and thereby causing crores of loss to government exchequer. This is the first arrest in this case and effort is on to arrest other accused persons,” EOW said in a release.

The accused was nabbed based on the written complaint filed by ITO, TDS-1, Bhubaneswar. It was alleged that the TDS return in the form No-26-Q 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 crores in favour of 32 tax payers as deduction of TDS on false payment of commission amounting to Rs. 27 crores.

Preliminary investigation reveals that the accused Neeraj along 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. The amount was credited in the PAN of 32 beneficiaries/ tax payers.

Though the returns of M/s IAMO Solution Pvt Ltd are generally filed at Bhubaneswar, this particular return has been filed at New Delhi. 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.

“The total amount of Rs.17.77 lakhs has been misappropriated by the accused from the total fraud amount of Rs.1.40 Crores,” EOW said in a statement.