IT Employee uses Seniors’ login credentials; Siphons off Rs.263 crore on fake TDS Deduction

An Enforcement Directorate investigation discovered that a mid-level income tax employee was able to gain access to his superiors’ computers and fabricate phoney tax deducted at source (TDS) refunds worth millions of dollars.

The CBI has attached over Rs 70 crore in property in Maharashtra and Karnataka as part of the money laundering investigation. According to reports, it has confiscated 32 plots purchased using money obtained from the government in the form of TDS refunds totaling Rs 263 crore.

Tanaji Mandal Adhikari, a senior tax assistant, had acquired his superiors’, including the commissioner’s, trust in order to obtain their login credentials.

He’d tell his assistants to submit bogus TDS claims to the IT department, which he’d then illegally clear by hacking into senior officers’ accounts.

According to an ED press release, after utilising his assistants to steal millions in fake TDS refunds, senior I.T. assistant Adhikari would put the stolen money into the bank account of a firm called SB Enterprises, which was controlled by a man named Bhushan Patil.

According to an ED investigation, Adhikari created a total of 12 fake TDS refunds worth Rs 263 crore that were credited to SB Enterprises’ account over a year beginning in November 2019. Refunds were issued in regard to pending claims from the assessment years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.

Patil and his friends then transferred the funds to shell businesses and other accounts.

The seized properties include land in Lonavla, Khandala, Karjat, Pune, and Udupi, as well as homes in Panvel and Mumbai and three luxury vehicles (BMW X7, Mercedes GLS400d, Audi Q7). These properties are registered in the names of Bhushan Patil, Rajesh Shetty, Sarika Shetty, Kriti Verma, and other Adhikari partners.