Commercial tax scam: 34 booked for forgery in Bodhan

 Hyderabad: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) has framed charges against 34 accused, including 23 commercial tax officers, for allegedly causing the government loss of Rs 231 crore, according to the chargesheet filed in the probe into commercial tax irregularities in Bodhan of Nizamabad.

CID officials said that a total of 123 witnesses, 68 software material objects, 143 documents and three audit reports by experts were cited as evidence, comprehensively connecting the accused to the crime.

The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and the chargesheet was filed in court for trial.

The action comes after the Bodhan town police registered a case in connection with a fake commercial tax challan in 2017, and it was transferred to CID for further probe.

It was a case of criminal breach of trust, forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy that was taking place in the Commercial Tax Office of Bodhan since 2012, in which the accused created bogus challans paid by genuine VAT payers, entered in the VATIS portal as false entries and caused loss to the tune of '231.22 crore to the government exchequer, the CID said.

On February 2, 2017, the complainant, L. Vijayender, CTO, Bodhan Circle, Nizamabad district, lodged a complaint stating that the accused, Simhadri Lakshmi Sivaraj and his son Simhadri Venkata Suneel, who are practising sales tax private auditors in Nizamabad town, connived with the office staff of CTO and resorted to malpractice in payment of accounts of VAT/CST tax to the government, resulting in huge loss in revenue to the state government and also to a few clients, for unlawful gains.

The accused were identified as Simhadri Laxmi Sivaraj, his son Simhadri Venkata Suneel and their staff Vishal Patel, Kammara Ramalingam, Narayanadas Venkata Krishnamachary, N. Satyavenkata Krishna Kumar, Mallaiahgani Mahesh, Gangone Rakesh, Madapally Ramana, Vangala Srinivas, Mohd. Nazeeruddin and Arrojula Rajesh.

Chargesheeted officers of the Commercial Tax department include Rathod Dharma Vijaya Krishna, Anantha Syanam Venugopal Swamy, B. Hanuman Singh, Dharani Srinivasarao, T. Purnachandra Reddy, R. Kishan, ACTO, K. Nageswar Rao, ACTO, K. Vijaya Kumar, ACTO, S. Rathna Kumari, ACTO, B.N. Indira, ACTO, J. Rajaiah, ACTO, S. Sailu, ACTO, Bodhan circle, C. Swarna Latha, senior assistant K. Arun Reddy, senior assistant B. Peeraji, senior assistant Ravindra Babu, junior assistant R. Balaraju, junior assistant B. Chandrahas, junior assistant R. Vinod Kumar, B. Ranga Rao, L. Bajarang and C. Sridhar.