BHOPAL: A 29-year-old man from Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh, presently working with a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company in Ludhiana is in a state of shock following an Income Tax department notice, asking him to pay Rs 3.49 crore penalty for alleged transactions worth Rs 132 crores done via a current account in a private bank in 2011-2012.
The man identified as Ravi Gupta presently works as assistant manager with the BPO in Ludhiana and received a notice from IT Department last month, asking him to explain transactions worth Rs 132 crore made in 2011-2012 through a current account opened in 2011 at the Axis Bank Malad-Mumbai branch using his PAN card and photograph. The concerned current account was opened in the name of a firm Tiya Traders in 2011.
“I’ve never visited Mumbai or Surat (the firm is said to be registered in Surat) and the Axis Bank opened the account without complete KYC documents. The bank didn’t even check the details and the permanent address. At the time when the concerned account was opened in Mumbai, I was working in Indore and merely drawing Rs 6,000 monthly salary. So how I could have opened an account in Mumbai and indulged in transactions worth Rs 132 crores. I’ve been asked by the IT Department in Gwalior to deposit the penalty by January 17, 2020,” Gupta told journalists in Gwalior.
Importantly, Gupta has received multiple notices in this connection from the IT Department since March 2019. “After I came to know about it through multiple notices sent the IT Department notices, I enquired from the Axis Bank about the concerned current account details and came to know that the account was opened in 2011 on the address Dhan Mansion Gazdar Street C Ward SS Road Mumbai, which is just a few meters away from the offices of the companies run by Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi, who are accused in the multi-crore PNB scam.”
“The account opened using my PAN card was used by the Surat-based firm to carry out the Rs 132 crore transactions in 2011-12 and later the bogus account was closed.”
Gupta told The New Indian Express that since last several months, I’ve tried to seek help in the matter from the IT Department, RBI, CBI, ED, besides the Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh police. “All I’ve received a response from cops is that I should report the matter in Bhind, Gwalior, Indore, Ludhiana or Mumbai. I recently mailed entire matter to MP DGP, besides reporting it on the portal of Maharashtra Police and MP Police.”
According to Gupta he recently received an intimation from MP police, that his matter will be taken care by Gwalior Crime Branch.
However, the Gwalior Crime Branch inspector in-charge Damodar Gupta, while confirming having received details about the matter from the MP Police portal on Tuesday, said the matter doesn’t pertain to Gwalior. “We’ve told him (Gupta) to report the matter where he lives or else raise it with the concerned IT Department officials,” the Gwalior Crime Branch inspector in-charge said.