Rs 15,000 cr chit fund scam in Bengal–IT commissioner under lens
New Delhi/ Kolkata:While the new NDA government has set its tone by compulsorily retiring up to 27 corrupt senior Income Tax officials in the first few weeks of taking charge, one Income Tax Commissioner – Neeraj Singh – accused of serious counts of corruption and criminal conspiracy by multiple law enforcement agencies, seems to have slipped through the cracks.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the Rs 15,000-crore Rose Valley case, is now investigating Singh's role. This comes after serious charges of criminal conspiracy, corruption and money laundering were levelled against the high-ranking IT official by Kolkata Police. Meanwhile, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has undertaken departmental proceedings against him, also serving him with a charge-sheet.
Singh, an IRS officer, was then Additional Director of Income Tax (Investigation) in Kolkata, overseeing investigative operations of the IT-department in the city when a probe by city cops unearthed appalling documents allegedly proving his close connection with Rose Valley Chairman Gautam Kundu.
Back in February 2017, in a search operation conducted by the anti-fraud division of Kolkata Police, a slew of documents was recovered from the offices of Kolkata-based accountant and middleman Govind Agarwal, allegedly revealing a long-running corruption racket operated by Singh. City police have further alleged that the IRS officer was using Agarwal as a "front man" to park or invest his seemingly tainted earnings in dealings with companies controlled by Kundu and other business houses.
Interestingly, this comes even after direct evidence of a former ED investigator's connection with Kundu was brought forward. Manoj Kumar, a former Assistant Director of ED, initially in charge of the Rose Valley probe in Kolkata, was caught red-handed on CCTV camera while entering a Delhi hotel with Kundu's wife, Shubhra Kundu. ED had later suspended Kumar, taking away all his assigned investigations, after which Kumar himself surrendered.
According to the police, a preliminary report on the search operation pointed to the recovery of various hotel bills and foreign trip documents from Agarwal's premises, allegedly proving that he was compensating for travel and other expenses incurred by Singh, his wife and children. In fact, based on air tickets found at Agarwal's premises, local police alleged that Singh had travelled to Port Blair from Kolkata with Kundu and his wife Shubhra in November 2013. Agarwal had accompanied the trio.
Local police found a daily permit issued by the IT-Air Intelligence Unit under Agarwal's name, valid for entry into Kolkata Airport (120 times) – a clear violation of the National Security Act. The dates of the Port Blair tickets are consistent with a trip the three (Agarwal, Kundu and Singh) took to strike a land deal with the Rose Valley Group there.
Further information of Singh's alleged connection to Rose Valley came forward when police found a file containing jurisdiction details of a plot of land in Port Blair along with several files allegedly containing e-mail correspondences and other documents pertaining to the chit fund company on Agarwal's premises.
Sources allege that Singh had introduced Kundu's wife, Shubhra, to former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha at the headquarters through an SP-level officer, incidentally, his close relative. Several phone calls between Shubhra and Sinha were also allegedly traced in odd hours, which were not pursued by the central probe agency. In fact, Shubhra was allegedly found to be on the official guest list of the former CBI Director's son's wedding.
Moreover, in course of the Rose Valley investigation, a car registered to a company owned by Agarwal was seen visiting Shubra's home in Kolkata's South City apartments as many as 17 times at odd hours of the day. In addition, Singh has also been spotted visiting Astor Hotel in Central Kolkata with Shubhra, where a powerful BJP leader, who is now a minister in UP, was also allegedly present.
Kolkata Police also found receipts of cash purchases of gold under Singh's wife's name from Adrija Gold in Kolkata, a jewellery retail company started by none other than Kundu in September 2012. ED arrested Kundu in 2015 and yet, Adrija Gold was allowed to function for almost two years without any interference from probe agencies like CBI and ED. ED had conducted raids at three Adrija Gold outlets only in 2017, when it seized more than Rs 500-crore worth of jewellery. Multiple hotels owned by Rose Valley also continue to run.
Singh, a 1994 batch officer currently posted in Chennai, was promoted to Commissioner in October 2017, within six months of Kolkata Police registering an FIR against him in May of the same year, and was then transferred to Mumbai as CIT (Audit) to assume new charge.
Adding to the list of serious allegations, CBDT's charge-sheet alleges that Singh took up Presidency of Chirag United, a football club, without government sanction, thus contravening Rule 15/1 C of the Central Services Conduct rules. Moreover, Singh travelled to Thailand in 2015, without seeking permission from the competent authority. However, though an administrative charge-sheet has been filed by CBDT, its vigilance wing is yet to complete its probe.
Uncovering the larger scope of the Singh-Agarwal nexus, preliminary investigation by city cops in the case has shown that Agarwal allegedly used a network of shell/paper companies to launder bribe money collected on Singh's behalf. In fact, when one of Agarwal's alleged shell companies came under the IT department's scanner in 2017-18, a high-ranking official of CBDT instructed junior officers to slow down the probe.
According to a report by the officer-in-charge of the initial investigation in the case, a 51-page-file was also recovered from Agarwal's offices allegedly having an "elaborate written plan to launder money for one Manish Rajeshwar Kumar".
The probe by local police also revealed a credit balance of Rs 8.5 crore in an account belonging to Singh's minor son, as per several bank account statements recovered from Agarwal' offices. Bank details of Singh and his wife were also found during the raids.
Further investigation in the case also revealed that Agarwal was somehow in possession of several IT investigation case files, including cases being directly supervised by Singh. City cops allegedly found appraisal reports of IT searches conducted under Singh's supervision at premises relating to one Pradip Ruia Group.
Moreover, official IT department files in the matter of one SSS Loha Marketing with note sheets and forwarding letters of Singh were also recovered from Agarwal's premises in Kolkata, in addition to Income Tax assessment reports of one Microsec Group. Interestingly enough, IT files were not the only government documents seized from the Kolkata tax practitioner's offices.
Local police found a multitude of confidential files of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Bureau of Investigation and the Finance Ministry's Department of Revenue, which seems to point to a violation of Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act. And, the searches at Agarwal's offices also led to the discovery of links to several IPS and IRS officers, including files allegedly belonging to one RK Singh, whose identity still remains a mystery.
A 38-page folder mentioning Abdus Sattar, former Left minister, was also found at Agarwal's offices. Besides, city cops in Kolkata also suspect that they have recovered documents of several top officers from Agarwal's premises, which indicate that Agarwal, an ordinary accountant, had allegedly close connections with a former joint director of CBI, one former Central Vigilance Commissioner and one former CBDT member along with several IT officials. Agarwal was also allegedly found to be on the official guest list of a former Central Vigilance Commissioner's son's wedding.
However, this is not the first time that Singh has been investigated for corruption. CBI had, in 2004, registered a case against him which was later closed. According to top police sources, a luxurious guest house was also maintained in a posh South Calcutta residence, where powerful Delhi-based senior officials were being "properly entertained".
Singh has applied for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) from his service recently, it is to be seen whether his appeal is cleared despite the serious charges.
While investigating officers have been overenthusiastic in pursuing Rajeev Kumar's case for two years now, CBI and ED have barely pursued the valuable leads that have appeared in the chit fund nexus between Rose Valley, Neeraj Singh and Govind Agarwal.
