4 CAs Among 9 Booked in Rs 804 Crore Foreign Remittance Case for Allegedly Issuing Improper Form 15CB Certificates:

Gandhidham police have booked nine people, including four who claimed to be chartered accountants, for allegedly helping send Rs 804.30 crore abroad using improperly issued Form 15CB certificates.

The Gandhidham 'A' Division police registered the case late Friday night based on a complaint filed by Nikhil Patidar, an Income Tax Inspector from the Income Tax Investigation Wing in Ahmedabad.

According to the FIR, the accused allegedly issued Form 15CB certificates without properly verifying documents related to foreign payments. Police said this helped seven companies gain financial benefits and caused losses to the government.

The Income Tax Department had earlier carried out search and survey operations at the offices of several accountants in Gandhidham. During the investigation, officials allegedly found that the certificates were issued without checking account books, contracts and other important documents.

Investigators also found that some of the accused allegedly admitted they had never directly met or spoken to the directors or owners of the companies involved. Police suspect that middlemen arranged the transactions and that the accused were paid cash commissions, which were not reported.

Form 15CB is a certificate issued by a chartered accountant for certain foreign payments, including some remittances of more than Rs 5 lakh in a financial year.

The accused have been identified as Puneel Atual Dand, Nikhil Avdhesh Mishra, Rahul Sadhu, Karan Agrawal, Ravindra Shishupal Kela, Pravin Jain, Shailendra Shehravat, Alok Mittal and Ajaykumar Abani.

Police have registered the case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for offences including criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

The investigation is still underway. Police are trying to determine the total amount of illegal commissions allegedly earned and identify the actual beneficiaries, company directors and others who may have been involved in the transactions.