Karnataka CID Probes Role of Gold Company in Laundering Over Rs 1 Crore of Income Tax Refund
By: Admin | July 27, 2024 | Categories: Income Tax News
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Karnataka Police is investigating the role of a gold company and its officials in the alleged laundering of Income Tax Refunds (ITR) that were illegally diverted to the accounts of a serial ITR fund fraud offender.
The CID is probing the role of the Attica Gold Company after Rs 1.41 crore of Income Tax Refunds of a Bengaluru family were diverted to a Dharwad bank account by a serial offender identified as Dilip Rajegowda, 34, and used to purchase gold in the 2022-2023 period.
The case pertains to a 2023 cybercrime complaint filed by Bengaluru resident Tom Mathew, who alleged that his brother Timmy Joseph discovered in March 2023 that an IT Refund amount of Rs 65.91 lakh was diverted to a bank account that did not belong to him. Similarly, Tom Mathew’s father, Joseph Thomas, was cheated out of a Rs 75.92 lakh IT Refund filed through the same CA in the 2022-23 period.
The CID cybercrime unit began the probe into the ITR fraud case soon after the complaint about the financial loss of Rs 1.41 crore was registered, arresting suspect Dilip Rajegowda on April 28, 2023, by following the trail of a Dharwad account where the stolen ITR funds were deposited.
The probe found that Dilip Rajegowda purchased gold in the form of bars, coins, and ornaments using the stolen ITR funds and later converted the gold into cash by selling it at the Dharwad branch of the Attica Gold Company. The gold was allegedly purchased on the instructions of an official identified as Ismitha Jain.
The CID has issued notices to the Attica Gold Company and Ismitha Jain to appear for questioning. A special court in Bengaluru granted anticipatory bail to Ismitha Jain on July 20 in the case.
Dilip Rajegowda is also alleged to have laundered the stolen ITR funds through cryptocurrency and gold purchases. At least two similar offences were recorded against him in the 2022-23 period. In one case, he is accused of creating a fake UCO Bank account in the name of Vinod Ganglany, and a Rs 77 lakh Income Tax Refund was illegally transferred to this account before being diverted to multiple other accounts.
A case was registered in 2022 with the Bengaluru North CEN police by Naresh Ganglany, stating that his mother and brother sold joint properties at Sadashivanagar in March 2020 and applied for a tax refund of Rs 77 lakh each. While his mother received the Rs 77 lakh refund in September 2022, his brother did not receive the amount, which was later found to have been deposited in an unknown bank account with an address in Goa, and the funds were subsequently siphoned to other accounts.
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