Ranchi; July 12: CBI conducted searches in offices and residences of Ranchi's principal commissioner of income tax in the state capital and Calcutta today for his alleged involvement in a money laundering syndicate, apparently run in collusion with three colleagues, and seized Rs 3.5 crore cash and 5kg of gold.
The raids were carried out at five places in Ranchi and 18 in Calcutta, which included offices and residences of Tapas Kumar Dutta's business friends. In the evening, Ranchi-based Dutta was taken by the CBI to an undisclosed location for questioning.
Apart from the cash and gold, which would be valued around Rs 1.4 crore under current bullion rates, over 100 files were also seized from Dutta's house in Salt Lake, a posh locality in east Calcutta.
Posted in Ranchi since early 2016, Dutta would ask his clients, mainly Calcutta businessmen, to migrate the PAN of companies, usually shell companies, to Ranchi under his jurisdiction, so that he could assess tax files and charge commission in exchange.
The Delhi Unit of CBI on Monday had lodged an FIR against Dutta and his three Ranchi colleagues, I-T additional commissioner Arvind Kumar and officers Ranjeet Kumar Lal and Subir Ganguly.
FIRs were also filed against Calcutta businessmen Biswanath Agarwal, Santosh Chowdhury, Akash Agarwal, Vinod Agarwal and Arvind Agarwal, and their common chartered accountant Pawan Maurya, for alleged links with Dutta.
"An FIR has been lodged against 10 persons, four I-T officers, five businessmen and one CA, under section 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and Sections 7, 12, 13 (2) and 13 (1) , (related to illegal gratification and misconduct) of Prevention of Corruption Act. More raids and searches are likely in Jharkhand," a DSP ranked CBI officer involved in the raids told this newspaper.
All cases of money laundering that have emerged so far are from 2016-17, when Dutta entered into criminal conspiracy with his businessmen clients to get income tax assessment files of their companies under his jurisdiction.
The CBI officer said Dutta allegedly helped Biswanath Agarwal, his business friends and two relatives, identified as P.K. Dhanuka and Subodh Dhanuka in connection with shell companies floated by them, to launder and accommodate unaccounted for cash.
"Even though it is a multilayered and carefully crafted financial fraud, the evidence against them are glaring," a CBI source alleged.
"The IT officials gave undue benefits to companies GRD Finance and Finlink owned by Subodh Dhanuka and Bishwnath Agarwal. The PAN of Calcutta-based Anchal Vyapar, owned by Bishwanath Agarwal, was migrated to Ranchi and its tax assessed here. On June 11, Bishwanath Agarwal gave a huge sum of cash to Dutta's Calcutta-based wife through a trusted driver. Many other details of companies have emerged. His clients bought Dutta a flat in Calcutta and helped run a company named Jharna Liquors in Calcutta," he alleged.
In Ranchi, Dutta, a man in his mid-50s, stayed alone at the guest house of Aykar Bhavan, the I-T department building on Main Road.
I-T officers in Ranchi said the CBI raids did not come as a surprise.
"In the last few months, 100 IT assessment files from Calcutta were transferred to Ranchi, which Dutta and officers close to him were handling. We are not shocked but this has embarrassed our division," an IT officer said.
