CBDT puts IRS officer Neeraj Singh under suspension
The Millennium Post had on June 27 reported the contents of an FIR, which had accused a Kolkata-based accountant Agarwal of acting as a front-man for the controversial officer
New Delhi: Controversial Income Tax Commissioner and IRS officer, Neeraj Singh, has been put under suspension by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) until departmental proceedings pending against him are completed.
The suspension order, issued on July 1, put Singh under suspension "with immediate effect".
According to the CBDT order, his headquarters of CIT (Audit), Mumbai will be under the Pr. CCIT of Mumbai as long as the order was in force. It also ordered that Singh "shall not leave the headquarters without obtaining the prior permission of the disciplinary authority".
Last month, the CBDT had served Singh with a chargesheet alleging that he had violated several rules of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules by holding the post of president with Chirag United, a football club playing in Calcutta Football League First Division, without seeking sanction of the government.
The CBDT's chargesheet also mentions that Singh had travelled abroad without seeking prior permission from the competent authority and the fact that he was also named an accused in a 2017 Kolkata Police FIR, filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act among others.
The Millennium Post had on June 27 reported the contents of the FIR, which had accused a Kolkata-based accountant Govind Agarwal of acting as a front-man to collect and launder the alleged tainted earnings of none other than Singh. While Singh has publicly denied that the allegations had ever been made, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken cognizance of the Kolkata Police FIR and registered a separate Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the equivalent of an FIR, to open an investigation into the alleged instances of money-laundering.
In fact, as part of the investigation, the ED conducted raids last week at four of Agarwal's premises in Kolkata's Lake Town, Gurusaday Road, DC Dey Road, and Park Street and found documents that allegedly pointed to at least 40 companies that were suspectedly being used to launder money, according to a source in the know.
The recoveries included unexplained property papers, some of which were registered to the above-mentioned companies. Papers relating to share investments made under different people's names and a horde of other documents were recovered from the raids, including evidence of regular contact with several government officials. ED sleuths also recovered Rs 1 lakh in cash and a 1 kg gold bar.
Interestingly, a senior official said that the raids also revealed message exchanges that allegedly mentioned some government documents being shared and whether some of them could be settled.
The CBDT's chargesheet against Singh also mentions that he had violated Rule 11 of the CCS (Conduct) Rules and Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 on the basis of a number of government files under his supervision found at Agarwal's premises by the Kolkata Police.
The Kolkata Police FIR referred to documents and electronic devices collected from one of Agarwal's premises in the city, which pointed to alleged instances of money laundering. This has thus, resulted in the ED registering a case under PMLA on the basis of this FIR.
Earlier, in a letter to the Millennium Post, Singh had denied all the allegations levelled against him.
