Rourkela: While conducting a probe into a suspected tax evasion, the officials of Rourkela Goods and Services Tax (GST) department on Friday intercepted two truck-loads with 25 tonnes of edible oil.
Preliminary probe reveals that an oil consignment was reportedly looted from a truck by a group of five armed miscreants after attacking the driver on January 10. The truck with the original consignment is yet to be traced.
The miscreants were planning to smuggle the shipment to Bihar from Odisha. Three persons have been detained by police and further investigation is currently underway.
A senior GST official said that they suspected something amiss about the two trucks and later found that they were carrying some edible oil consignment
“Preliminary investigation reveals that the way -bill was generated from Bhalubasa area near Rairangpur. But the consignment was loaded from Jharsuguda and was on its way to Bihar,” said the GST official.
Notably the concerned company – Nishad Enterprise was registered for the sale of iron and it is being probed why it was engaged in the transportation of edible oil.
Moreover, the company had not procured any materials in the past one year, but it has mentioned to have done a sale transaction worth nearly Rs 2 crore.
“We had just finished our food when two miscreants came to us and forcefully made us to eat some intoxicants. We do not know what happened after that,” said one of the driver of the truck.
The GST official Sangram Keshari Sahoo said," As per documents, the consignment is said to be worth Rs 23 lakh. But we suspect that the total consignment is worth over Rs 30 lakh. Only after a detailed probe, we can say the total value of the consignment and GST evasion."
Sources said, Telkoi police is investigating regarding theft of consignment which was initially loaded into two trucks. The physical verification of the consignment is currently underway.
A transport official said, the shipment was loaded on January 9. The vehicle was given way bill the next day but the GPS on the truck stopped functioning on January 10.
“Today, we got information that some consignment was recovered by GST officials. So we have come to assist in the probe,” said Janardan Sahoo, transporter.
(Edited By Suryakant Jena)