EOW arrests two in multi-crore I-T refund fraud case

New Delhi: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has arrested two individuals involved in a multi-crore income-tax refund fraud case, officials said on Sunday.

The accused persons have been identified as Nitin Mehta (36) and Nikunj Dudeja (37). They were arrested on a complaint lodged by Mohit Garg, IRS, Income Tax Department, Delhi. The accused are the directors of VBMCS Sales Pvt Ltd. Both accused individuals hold educational qualifications such as BCom, LLB, MBA and have had prior associations with chartered accountants. They have also been implicated in other cases of cheating.

The complaint highlighted irregularities detected during the scrutiny process conducted by the Income Tax Department. It was discovered that several refunds had been suspiciously issued to fictitious taxpayers, without the sub

mission of any refund application under section 154 of the Income Tax Act.

The fraudulent refunds amounted to Rs 3.36 crore, disbursed to 20 individuals for the financial years 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15, respectively, DCP EOW, Mohd Irshad Haider said.

Further investigation revealed that the TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) reflected in the recipients’ Form 26AS indicated that the deductions were made by defunct companies. However, the bank accounts of these individuals did not show any corresponding payments for services rendered. Moreover, none of the assessees could be traced to the addresses provided in their PAN cards, which were also found to be based on forged documents, Haider said.

The inquiry uncovered that out of the 20 fraudulent bank accounts, 19 were opened based on the recommendations of VBMCS Sales Pvt Ltd., with the individuals being falsely depicted as employees of the company.

The police team operated under the close supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police SM Sharma and Deputy Commissioner of Police Mohd Irshad Haider, who heads the EOW. The accused persons were taken into custody on June 30.