IIPM director Arindam Chaudhuri arrested for Rs 23-crore tax evasion

New Delhi, August 23

Arindam Chaudhuri, Director of Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), has been arrested by the CGST South Delhi Commissionerate over alleged undue claim of Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT) of service tax credit of around Rs 23 crore.

Chaudhuri was arrested on Friday and sent to 14 days in judicial custody by a Delhi court for wrongfully claiming Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT) of service tax credit (in the pre-GST regime) amounting to approximately Rs 23 crore.

Chaudhuri is facing charges under Section 89 of the Finance Act. Chaudhuri’s colleague, Gurudas Malik Thakur, another director of IIPM, has also been apprehended for the same offence and sent to 14 days in judicial custody.

The probe is also on properties held by Chaudhuri and his company in Delhi and other cities and also overseas.

This is not the first time Chaudhuri has been caught on the wrong side of the law as his famed institute, IIPM, had been in the news earlier as well for similar cases of financial irregularities.

Chaudhuri was apprehended on March 14, 2020 for allegedly submitting a forged medical certificate after police asked him to join the probe with respect to a 2016 case. The doctor, whose signature was on the medical certificate, had died 10 years before the certificate was made. He was subsequently released on bail.

Delhi Police had in 2015 registered an FIR against IIPM following the complaint of UGC that the institute was “misleading, cheating, and fooling” students as it was not recognised by any regulatory body. The UGC, in its complaint, had said despite the fact that its courses were not authorised, the institute was “fooling” students by charging hefty fees from them. — IANS

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