Ranchi, July 13: His colleagues knew him as smart, affable, a voracious reader and someone who never threw his weight around peons. But, the urbane mask of principal commissioner of income tax (Ranchi, Hazaribagh) Tapas Kumar Dutta slipped when he was discovered as the alleged mastermind of a huge tax scam.
In his mid-50s and an Indian Revenue Service officer of 1985 batch, Dutta was arrested late last night after a series of CBI raids at his Ranchi office, Calcutta home and residences of his clients in Calcutta whose money he helped launder.
Tipped widely to become a chief I-T commissioner next year, Dutta is now languishing at Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi. The CBI today took him on four days' remand after producing him in local court.
The court also directed jail authorities and the CBI for his health check-up. Dutta is diabetic and hypertensive.
After getting transferred to Ranchi, Dutta asked his businessmen friends - Biswanath Agarwal, Santosh Chowdhury, Akash Agarwal, Vinod Agarwal, Arvind Agarwal - and their chartered accountant Pawan Maurya, to migrate the PAN of their shell companies to Ranchi and Hazaribagh under Section 264 of I-T Act. Then, allegedly, he assessed his clients' taxes in a way that they had to pay much less, and got hefty kickbacks in return.
"We sought six days' remand, but the court gave us four days. Remand was required since Dutta is involved in a grave financial crime, money laundering and illegal accommodation of money. He had been on our radar right after demonetisation when businessmen started laundering money through fake companies," said a CBI officer.
He added that the haul from Dutta's Calcutta residence increased. "We recovered, significantly, Rs 3.7 crore in cash, 6.6kg of gold and documents of a flat worth Rs 4 crore," he said.
Dutta's three colleagues - additional I-T commissioner Arvind Kumar, I-T officers Ranjeet Kumar Lal and Subir Ganguly - who allegedly helped him and were also named in the FIR have not yet been arrested.
The CBI is questioning Lal and Ganguly in Ranchi and Kumar in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, where he had been transferred three days ago.
A day after the CBI raids, Aykar Bhavan office in Ranchi Main Road, where Dutta worked for the past year and a half and lived in the guesthouse, looked it had been hit by a storm.
People spoke in hushed whispers about the CBI haul of cash and gold from Dutta's Calcutta residence and his businessmen clients.
"Technically and legally there is nothing wrong with PAN migrations (which Dutta asked for). But, if the migrations were misused to save tax, it is a criminal offence," said an I-T officer.
A senior I-T officer recounted how the Ranchi unit won appreciation from the Union ministry of finance for excellent performance during the demonetisation drive.
"But our reputation is now gone in one go, thanks to him (Dutta)," he said. "The entire Ranchi unit feels demoralised."
Asked about the man, a subordinate said he appreciated the fact that Dutta never asked peons to carry his files and personal belongings.
"He was soft-spoken with impeccable behaviour towards everyone. He was a voracious reader who lived a simple life. But, maybe that was a camouflage," he added.
According to Dutta's colleagues, his wife stayed with him at the guesthouse for a month but shifted to Calcutta again. They did not know about his other family members in Calcutta.
