GST fraud case: State officials in dock as police step in

A fornight after midday reported about the fraud within the state Goods and Services Tax GST office by two tax inspectors the Mumbai Police has initiated an inquiry GST officials who initially attempted to sweep the fraud under the rug approached the Mumbai police to request a criminal investigation into the financial misconductIn response to their complaint the Economic Offence Wing EOW and the Byculla police have received applications According to GST officials the scale of the fraud exceeds Rs 150 croremidday reported about the alleged fraud committed by tax officers Ami Lalge and Gajanan Lad amounting to over Rs 150 crore on September 26 2023 However despite a report from GSTrsquos own vigilance wing no further action was taken by GST authorities apart from suspending the officers involved Government regulations dictate that the GST department should have immediately reported the matter to the police as it represents a significant loss of revenue in collusion with government employeesThe inquiry is yet to be assigned to a police officer File picIn the wake of middayrsquos report the AntiCorruption Bureau of Maharashtra has decided to step in and request the inquiry report prepared by the vigilance wing The ACB will examine whether the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 are applicable in this case The DirectorGeneral of the ACB sanctioned the proposal to proceed with obtaining the report a couple of days agoIn September GST officials had written to the Mumbai Police regarding the fraud Nitin Patil special joint commissioner of GST also met with Joint Commissioner Nishith Mishra in this regard and submitted the application for the probe According to sources the application was aimed at investigating the role of tax officer Amit Lalge in the fraud in which traders were unjustly refunded through their shell companiesldquoWe had written to the EOW and I personally met with an officer to initiate the investigationrdquo said Nitin Patil special joint commissioner of state GST ldquoWe have also received acknowledgment from them about the inquiry and have requested the vigilance departmentrsquos report and other related documentsrdquo he addedSources within the EOW revealed that the inquiry regarding the application has been assigned to Unit 12 of the wing located on the ground floor of the GST Headquarters in Mazgaon The wing has sent a letter to GST officials requesting all relevant documents and summoning officials for statements but none of them have responded according to sources familiar with the inquiry Officials within the GST office have also confirmed this developmentOn the other hand the GST office is investigating the fraud committed by tax inspector Gajanan Lad who was suspended in June 2023 They have submitted an application to Zone 3 of the Mumbai Police A GST official stated ldquoAs the fraud amount in this case is around R1 crore we have requested the local police to conduct the inquiry Subsequently the application has been forwarded to the local policerdquoDCP Akbar Pathan forwarded the letter to the Byculla police station a couple of days ago A source at the police station confirmed receiving the application from the Zone office The inquiry is yet to be assigned to a police officer