Punjab police arrests 11 persons in VAT evasion of Rs.200 crores

After registering case on the complaint of  Fatehgarh Sahib Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner(AETC) against a owner of a Mandi Gobindgarh based industrial  firm, the Punjab police has  arrested eleven persons in an alleged case of VAT evasion of Rs.200 crores.

While pleading anonymity,  senior officials of Excise and Taxation Department and police department confirmed that there is evasion of VAT of over Rs 200 crore to Rs 300 crore  in the case.

It may be mentioned here that on the complaint of AETC, Fatehgarh Sahib, the Mandi Gobindgarh police had registered a case against Suresh Kumar, proprietor of Rohit Ispat, Mandi Gobindgarh under sections 465,467,471 of the IPC and 65, 66, 70 of Information Technology Act.

Sources said that after the arrest of Suresh Kumar  the police interrogated Suresh Kumar and arrested other persons involved in the case. Sources said that it was alleged in the complaint that Rohit Ispat allegedly sent goods to other states but he did not pay tax. Sources said that the firm  allegedly committed evasion of Rs 10.13 crore  VAT with the help of computers by showing fake entry. When the Excise and Taxation Department during checking found bogus entries it reported the matter to the police and police started investigations and other  cases of tax evasion were found.

The police has arrested Subhash Chander,  Rakesh Modi, Gurjit Singh , residents of Mandi Gobindgarh ;   Ravi Inder, Satwant Singh , residents of Doombali(Bathinda), Vajir Ali Khan, a resident of  Bathinda ;  Varinder Singh, a resident of Mukatsar ; Rajwinder Singh, a resident of Ropar. Two officials of Excise and Taxation Department  Subhash Chander, a resident of Khanna and Karamjit Singh, a resident of  Ludhiana have also arrested in the case.

Sources said that Subhash Chand was earlier posted at Information Collection Centre(ICC), Balongi and is now is suspended by the department in a old case while Karamjit Singh, who was earlier posted at ICC ,  Balongi and now was posted at Ludhiana. All the arrested were recently presented in a Amloh based court and remanded in judicial custody till October 31.

Sources said that during the investigation , the police found that   Mandi Gobindgarh based some traders and other arrested persons were involved in tampering of Excise and Taxation department computers, which were placed at various Information Collection Centres of the department. Sources said that these  persons even hacked the password of the department computers. Sources said that during the investigation it came to fore that  trucks loaded with steel were shown as tax free material in computer records of ICCs.

Possibility of other senior officials involved in the scam could not be ruled out.Sources said that there
may be more arrests in the case. When contacted Fatehgarh Sahib SP (Headquarter) Preetpal Singh Virk, who is conducting the  investigation in the case , said that the police is yet to complete the investigation.