CBI Court Convicts Seven Individuals, Including Police Inspector, in Income Tax Refund Fraud

In an income tax refund fraud case in Chennai, the CBI court found 7 people guilty and sentenced all of them to 4 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court also imposed a total fine of Rs 2.4 lakh on all these parties. This case was related to a planned fraud to cause loss to the government.

The accused in this case was Babu Prasath Kumar, who was then working as a senior tax assistant in the Income Tax Department. Investigation revealed that he misused his official position and generated fake income tax refunds using forged documents and fictitious identities. The money was routed to various family members and associates to hide the illegal gains.

This fraud continued from 4 June 2015 to 31 August 2019. During this period, the Income Tax Department suffered a loss of approximately Rs 2.38 crore. The Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Chennai, complained about it, after which the CBI registered the case in 2019 and started an investigation.

During the investigation, it was also revealed that Babu Prasath Kumar transferred the money obtained from fraud to the bank accounts of family members and associates instead of keeping it in his own name so that he could hide the illegal income. His companions and other people were also involved in this poor conspiracy – B. Praveen Kumar, Trewellyn Marion Corneille (Inspector of Police), P. Stephen, Gopikrishna, Venkatesh, and C. Gunaseelan. These individuals helped in executing the fake refund process. The CBI filed a total of 7 charge sheets in 2021 after a detailed investigation. A trial took place in the court; evidence and documents were examined, and ultimately, all the accused were found guilty. The court concluded that this was a planned fraud that resulted in the loss of crores of rupees to government revenue.