Hyderabad: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Telangana police has filed a charge sheet against 34 accused, including 23 officials of the Commercial Tax Department in Bodhan fake commercial tax challan case.
The CID said on Tuesday that the charge sheet in this six-year-old case was filed in the designated court in Karimnagar.
The fake commercial tax challans had resulted in the loss of over Rs 231 crore to the government exchequer. The accused have been charged under sections 406, 409, 420, 468, 471, 477-A, 120-B r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13 (1) (a) (b) r/w 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 .
A total of 123 witnesses, 68 computers, pen drives and hard disks, 143 documents and three audit reports by experts were cited as evidence, comprehensively connecting the accused to the commission of the crime.
According to Mahesh Bhagwath, Additional Director General of Police, CID, this is a case of criminal breach of trust, forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy that occurred in the Commercial Tax Office, Bodhan since 2012.
On February 2, 2017, L. Vijayender, C.T.O., Bodhan Circle, Nizamabad district, had lodged a complaint stating that, the accused Simhadri Lakshmi Sivaraj and his son Simhadri Venkata Suneel, who are practicing sales tax private auditors, in connivance with the office staff of C.T.O., Bodhan Circle, resorted to malpractices in payment of accounts of VAT/CST tax to the government, resulting in huge loss in tax revenue to the state government, and also to few clients for unlawful gains.
A case was registered under IPC sections 406, 420, 468,120 (B) was registered in Bodhan town and subsequently transferred to CID for further investigation.
During the course of investigation, the CID arrested 34 accused.
As 23 officials of Commercial Tax Department were involved in this case, the CID added sections 409, 471, 477-A r/w 34 IPC and Section 13 (1) (a) (b) r/w 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 added to the existing sections.
Simhadri Laxmi Sivaraj, his son Simhadri Venkata Suneel and their staff with the active collusion of the officers of Commercial Tax Department created bogus challans paid by genuine VAT payers, entered in the VATIS Portal as false entries and caused loss to the tune of Rs.231,22,76,967 to the government exchequer.
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