CID to probe scam involving Paonta firm

SOLAN: The CID will probe the Rs 5,000-crore scam by Paonta Sahib-based Indian Technomac Company Limited. Additional Director General of Police, CID, Ashok Tiwari, said the agency had already been probing two cases involving the company since 2016 and the FIR lodged by the Paonta Sahib police earlier this week also had common issues like tax evasion.

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, March 17

The CID will probe the Rs 5,000-crore scam by Paonta Sahib-based Indian Technomac Company Limited.

Additional Director General of Police, CID, Ashok Tiwari, said the agency had already been probing two cases involving the company since 2016 and the FIR lodged by the Paonta Sahib police earlier this week also had common issues like tax evasion. It was hence decided to hand over the probe to the CID.

The Paonta Sahib police had registered an FIR against MD Rakesh Sharma and three directors — Vinay Sharma, Ranganathan Sirinivasan and Ashwini Kumar Sahoo under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of the IPC for cheating and forgery on Monday.

It was learnt that the CID had registered two cases against the company in 2016. One such case involved the fake RTGS information furnished by the company towards the payment of power bills amounting to

Rs 4,49,80,291 for January 2014 to November 2014. Another case involved surreptitious sale of scrap worth Rs 50 lakh after the unit was sealed in 2015 by the Excise and Taxation Department following the non-payment of tax and penalty worth Rs 2,175.51 crore.

Various banks were defaulted to the tune of Rs 2,167 crore and the company owed around Rs 750 crore to the Income Tax Department. Dues worth Rs 20 crore from the EPF, HPSEB and Labour Department were also unpaid by the company.

The CID had managed to arrest only an accountant of the company in the fake RTGS case though the case had been registered against the MD and two directors Vinay Sharma and Anshu Jain.

The scam was detected in March 2014 and the tardy pace of investigations gave adequate time of the company officials to not only flee the state, but also sell the remaining scrap under the nose of the department.

The state government is yet to probe the role of officials of various departments who had failed to check the evasion of tax in its initial stages.

Indian Technomac booked in 2016

The CID had registered two cases against Indian Technomac Company in 2016
One such case involved the fake RTGS information furnished by the company towards the payment of power bills amounting to Rs 4,49,80,291 for January 2014 to November 2014
Another case involved surreptitious sale of scrap worth Rs 50 lakh after the unit was sealed in 2015 by the Excise and Taxation Department following the non-payment of tax and penalty worth Rs 2,175.51 crore