Narayana’s Son-in-law Embroiled in Legal Tangle; Police File Tax Evasion Case
Tirupati: Former Telugu Desam minister Ponguru Narayana’s son-in-law, Puneet Kothapa, is embroiled in a legal tangle as the Nellore Police registered a case against him for tax evasion and filing of forged documents under the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act.
According to SP Tirumaleswara Reddy, the case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed against Puneet by Nellore district transport commissioner, citing tax evasion and submission of forged documents under the MV Act.
Puneet is president of Narayana Educational Society and the MD of M/S NSPIRA Management Services Pvt Ltd.
The police along with the state directorate of revenue intelligence carried out raids at the residences of persons associated with the two institutions. This led to the seizure of Rs.1.81 crore.
"We seized Rs.1.06 crore from the house of E. Venkat Girish Kumar, Rs.20.5 lakh from B. Prasad's residence, Rs.25 lakh from K. Gurubrahmam's residence, and Rs.29.45 lakh from a residence at Narayana staff quarters. “The owners of these residences could not provide any documents to support the source of the seized cash,” the SP told the media in Nellore on Monday.
NSPIRA purportedly offers services to schools and colleges under the Narayana Educational Society umbrella, including food and accommodation, security, infrastructure, buses, and house-keeping. The investigation, as per SP Tirumaleswara Reddy, uncovered a web of “financial irregularities” allegedly involving these two entities associated with Puneet.
According to the SP, NSPIRA purchased 92 buses in July and August 2023 for around Rs.20.68 crore. However, the company allegedly claimed an Input Tax Credit (ITC) amount of Rs.4.48 crore in its GST returns.
“Upon scrutiny of the purchase invoices, it was found that these buses were fraudulently registered in the name of Narayana Educational Society, despite NSPIRA showing them as its fixed assets, and also claiming to have leased these to the former.”
“As per the MV Taxation Act, 1963, they don’t come under the definition of an education bus. The society is also not a profit-seeking entity as per the Register of Societies. So, they made this arrangement that allowed them to fraudulently register the vehicles in the name of Narayana educational society and avail lower taxation slabs meant for educational institutions,” the police explained.
“The investigation revealed that Puneet along with Ponguru Sindhura jointly ran NSPIRA to allegedly divert funds from the educational society and conduct transactions related to the institutions while illegally diverting government subsidies to their company.”
"Puneet and others tampered with the GSTIN details in the purchase invoices to facilitate this conspiracy. They provided false information to the RTA authorities, enabling them to avail the lower taxation slab applicable to educational institutions, depriving the government of its due revenue”, the SP said.
The authorities believe that Puneet, being a key member of Narayana Educational Society and NSPIRA, was aware of the fund transactions and allegedly diverted the tax benefits meant for the educational institutions to the management services company.
