Nashik techie duped I-T department of Rs 16.77 crore over three years, on the run

NASHIK: A software engineer allegedly fudged the annual income tax returns (ITR) of 1,888 assessees for the last three financial years and fraudulently claimed Rs 16.77 crore in refunds from the income-tax (I-T) department.
The I-T department on Wednesday filed a first information report (FIR) against the man, who is absconding. Deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Laxmikant Patil said the economic offences wing of the city police will investigate the case.
Police said the assessees work in private multinational companies, public sector undertakings and central and state establishments in Nashik. The techie had initially gained the confidence of a few assessees by promising to get them good I-T refunds and his popularity soon grew.
"The man used to get 20% of the refund amount from each assessee," city police commissioner Vishwas Nangare Patil said. An I-T official said the techie had collected a total commission of Rs 3.6 crore over the three years and had invested the money in immovable properties in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik.
Sources said the I-T department had started a covert investigation against the techie from May this year following a tip-off. "We found out that he works as the director of a firm in the city. We searched his firm and residence and got hold of documents," an I-T official said.
Both the I-T department officials and the police said the man would submit fake payment receipts of his assessees while filing their returns online to claim the refunds. “He would submit fake receipts to claim refunds under section 80C of the I-T Act and for housing loans that had never been taken, among other things. In many cases, even the gross annual income of the assessees were falsified,” the I-T official said.
The I-T department has done away with examining every return filed by individual taxpayers.
“The department trusts the taxpayers and refunds the amount that is claimed while filing ITRs. The techie exploited this to cheat the department,” the official said. The department has sealed four accounts of the techie in different banks and is in the process of seizing the properties that he purchased with the commissions he got.
The department also served notices to the 1,888 assessees following which 600 of them repaid around Rs 12 crore. “Under the I-T rules, each one of them will have to pay the total amount claimed and an additional cent per cent of the refunded amount as penalty,” the official said.