IT officials involved in scam

Mumbai, Feb 21 – The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested one person and detained four income tax (IT) department officials in connection with a Rs.30 million-IT refund scam, a top official said here Sunday.

The IT officials work in the information technology and other departments of the department in Mumbai, said CBI Western Region Director Rishi Raj Singh.

One of them had managed to secure the confidential password of the IT refunds assessing officer and it was used to process many forms using the IT PAN Card details of 23 ordinary people, he said.

‘By this, the accused managed to transfer over Rs.30 million worth of IT refunds to their personal accounts,’ Singh said.

The officials detained were Pramod Prabhakar, a senior IT inspector, Rajesh Pillai, Raju Nagpure and Manoj Santgiyani. They were undergoing CBI interrogation.

Their associate – Dilip Vyas, who acted as middleman in the scam – has been arrested.

The CBI is on the lookout for Vyas’ associates Sandeep Roy, Mohan Ghatge, an IT official Shrikant and one Ninad Dalvi who arranged the PAN cards.

‘The fraud was possible due to loopholes in the internal information technology systems of the IT department,’ Singh observed.

Investigations into the fraud are still underway and the IT department expects it to touch Rs.100 million and the number of PAN cards used in the scam could be more than 100.

The CBI acted on a complaint lodged by the IT Department Feb 4. The accused have been charged under various Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to cheating and committing fraud.