Two I-T officials get 5 yrs in jail for aiding tax fraud

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Tuesday convicted two senior officials of the Income Tax Department for causing loss to the government.

The officials who were convicted are Dhirendra Kumar Jha, the then Additional Commissioner of Income Tax and U A Chandramouli, the then Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Bengaluru. The special judge sentenced the duo to five years, rigorous imprisonment and fined them Rs 7.50 lakh each. 

The CBI case was that the two officials entered into a criminal conspiracy with the chairman, Children’s Education Society, JP Nagar, Bengaluru. During the society’s assessment of income tax, it concealed certain financial transaction which led to the loss of approximately Rs 4.16 crore to government.

The CBI had registered the case on September 26, 2008,  against Chandramouli and chairman of Children’s Educational Society, who passed away during the trial. During the investigation it was found that the two officials fraudulently returned an important document reflecting financial transactions of Children’s Education Society with a Bengaluru-based construction company without retaining the copies on record. The assessment of Children’s Education Society for the financial year 2003-04 was carried out in December 2006 by the two officials. They ignored the financial transactions and reduced the tax liability which caused a loss of Rs 4.16 crore to the Income Tax Department and a gain to the assessee.

The CBI had filed the charge sheet in April 2010 for offences under the Indian Penal Code sections 120 (B), 218, 420 and section 13 (2) and 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.