Tea-seller Faces Rs 49 Crore Tax Penalty Due to Fraud by Longtime Customers

By: Admin
May 22, 2024
Categories: Income Tax|Income Tax News
4 Min Read

A tea-seller from Patan, Khemraj Dave, received a notice from the Income Tax (I-T) department, demanding a penalty of Rs 49 crore for unscrupulous transactions totaling Rs 34 crore in his account. Dave discovered that two brothers, Alpesh and Vipul Patel, whom he had been serving tea for nearly a decade, had fraudulently used his credentials for these illegal transactions.

According to an FIR filed with the Patan B Division police, Dave, a native of Kankrej in Banaskantha, has operated his tea stall at the Patan commodity market since 2014. He mentioned that he had been serving tea at the office of Alpesh and Vipul Patel, who ran a brokerage business in the same market since 2014.

In 2014, Dave asked Alpesh for help obtaining a PAN card to link to his bank account, providing his Aadhaar card, PAN card, and eight photographs. Alpesh later visited Dave’s tea stall and had him sign various documents. A few days later, Dave received his Aadhaar card back, and Alpesh took its photocopy, claiming it was for submission to the I-T department.

Nearly a decade later, in August 2023, Dave received two notices from the I-T department, which he did not respond to as he could not read English. On August 23, 2023, after receiving a third notice, he consulted advocate Suresh Joshi, who revealed that a tax penalty had been issued for illegal transactions during the financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Dave found no unusual transactions in his account but, with friends, managed to meet an I-T officer in Patan, who disclosed that another account in his name was being used for these transactions. Dave then filed a complaint with the local police, who discovered that Alpesh and Vipul were operating accounts in his name.

Following Dave’s complaint, the Patan city B Division police registered charges of breach of trust, cheating, forgery, producing forged documents as genuine, criminal conspiracy, and abetment against Alpesh and Vipul, though the brothers have yet to be arrested.