Hyderabad: A man from Hyderabad who ran a false research society to facilitate tax evasion and money laundering and defrauded the Union government by obtaining I-T exemption was arrested by the Central Crime Station police on Friday.
In May this year, the I-T (exemptions wing) department, Hyderabad lodged a complaint with the Central Crime Station police of Hyderabad against the Rural Development Society located at Punjagutta, represented by Sanatana Ravi, a resident of Hasthinapuram, alleging involvement of laundering of funds and claiming exemptions fraudulently.
The society claims to be involved in research activities in the rural areas, particularly in Nalgonda district and obtained an exemption from the IT department. Subsequently, a case was registered by CCS police.
During investigation, it was found that there was no laboratory belonging to the society at the mentioned premises and it did not have any proper equipment to carry out R&D. Also, a fabricated CBDT notification for approval under section 35 of I-T Act for 2013 was in the email inbox of S. Ravi which facilitates donors to claim 175 per cent tax exemptions on the donated amount.
Detective department joint commissioner Avinash Mohanty said that based on the fabricated documents the society had collected donations amounting to Rs 37.13 crore, Rs 4.7 crore and Rs 91.38 lakh for the FY16, FY17, and FY18 respectively from approximately 200 members from Mumbai, Gujarat, and Kolkata towards donations.
The society returned 95 per cent of the donated amount to the donors by retaining 5 per cent as commission and facilitated tax evasion and laundering funds, and cheated and defrauded the Government of India. “The total tax loss to government is found to be around Rs 22.43 crore by the accused society as well as possible donors,” said the official.
