Fake IT Raid at Mumbai Firm: 2 Income Tax Officials Among 4 Arrested, Rs 1 Crore Demand:

Two Income Tax officials and two other people were arrested on Thursday for allegedly carrying out a fake Income Tax raid at a company in Chakala and demanding Rs 1 crore. With these arrests, the total number of people arrested in the case has reached 10.

The two Income Tax officials have been identified as IT Inspector Sureshkumar Mishra, 57, posted at the Piramal Chamber office in Lalbaug, and Tax Assistant Sunit Gore, 59, posted at Kautilya Bhavan in BKC. Police said the two had earlier allegedly carried out a similar fake raid at a company in Manpada and demanded Rs 65 lakh.

The Chakala incident took place on July 17 at Two M Ophthotronics Pvt Ltd in Sahar Cargo Estate. Andheri police registered a case on September 4 after company owner Rajkumar Kandasami complained about the incident.

According to police, the fake raiding team approached Kandasami and his wife near their home. Two men in plain clothes showed an identity card and allegedly forced them into a cab. They then took Kandasami to his office, where they questioned employees and checked company documents.

The men also allegedly took Kandasami's signature on a fake search warrant. They questioned him about cash transactions, threatened him with a large penalty and offered to settle the matter for Rs 1 crore.

However, Kandasami asked the team to show the official authorisation for the raid. The men could not produce the documents and left the office empty-handed after around three hours.

Kandasami later checked with his chartered accountant and found that the Income Tax Department had not ordered any raid. He then approached the police.

During the investigation, police found that Kandasami's former driver, Santosh Khopatkar, 37, was allegedly behind the plan. Khopatkar had been sacked by the company about three months earlier and allegedly wanted revenge. Police said he approached the Income Tax officials and sought their help to conduct a raid on his former employer.

Police had earlier arrested Vinay More, 37, Prem Sabnani, 50, Pragnya M, Reshma Waranag, 41, and Shabina Shaikh, 48, in connection with the case.

DCP (West Zone-3) Datta Nalawade said police also took custody of Jitendra More from Thane and Ashok Shinde from Vile Parle West on Thursday. Both were already in judicial custody in connection with the Manpada fake raid case.