Tainted Paonta firm directors involved in benami deals

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, March 13

Directors of Paonta Sahib firm Indian Technomac Company Limited, who committed a fraud of more than Rs 5,000 crore in the state, have invested in several benami properties.

Investigations carried out by a team of excise officials have revealed many instances of benami land purchase. The properties had been bought by the company either in the name of its directors or persons related to the company.

One such red entry of November 15, 2017, comprising land purchased in the name of Vinay Kumar, son of Madan Lal, measuring 56 bighas at Rampur Majri, was detected. Vinay Kumar, who was the company’s director and son of an IAS officer, is among the four booked by the police for cheating and forgery. The company directors had bought land adjacent to the unit and efforts were afoot to sell this land surreptitiously. The CID was, however, inquiring into this issue and action under Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act,1972, has also been initiated.

GD Thakur, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, said more such benami deals in Himachal and other states as well as in overseas locations were also suspected and a detailed investigations would bring out the truth. The company’s Jagatpur-based property was attached under Section 78 of the HP Land Revenue Act on October 17, 2014.

Officials of the Excise and Taxation Department had got the company’s properties assessed by HIMCON and its worth was pegged around Rs 275 crore. Despite detecting the fraud in 2014, the tardy pace of investigations has given adequate time to the company officials to flee the area before the noose could be tightened around them. Even about 800-tonne worth raw materials and finished goods were sold off by the company after it was sealed. The department had initially deployed only peons to look after the company’s assets worth crores after it was sealed in 2014 though later Home Guard sleuths were assigned the task, exposing their seriousness.

The department had suffered a loss of Rs 2,175.51 crore while the total fraud comprising bank loans, liabilities of Income Tax and EPF was over Rs 5,000 crore.