FIR against Real Estate firm for using Fake Certificates to avoid Taxes

The Income Tax Department alerted about the alleged use of fake completion certificates for tax evasion by the local real estate, the Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) filed an FIR with the police to further investigate the matter.

On Friday, Atul Anjan Tripathi (ACP Cantt) said that after getting a complaint from VDA, an FIR against real estate firm Vinayak Nirman Private Limited was lodged with Cantt police station on Wednesday. The case was registered under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using as genuine any document) of IPC against the company.

Furthermore, an investigation into this case has been started by Police.

Varanasi Development Authority zonal officer, Prakash Kumar lodged the FIR. The agency doesn’t want to mention the name of any official or employee of the company in this case.

Vice-chairman of VDA, Abhishek Goyal explained that it was the initiative of the IT department. Following their investigation, the IT department asked the VDA to verify the documents made available by the company regarding its projects including Varuna Gardens.

The Varuna Gardens residential apartment is just behind the Varanasi Development Authority compound and has district headquarters and divisional commissioner’s residence in its vicinity. The VDA started verification of documents when it came to everyone’s notice that the project had been started with a sanctioned map. During this inquiry, VDA found that the joint secretary of the authority did not issue such certificates to the real estate company for the project, Goyal said, adding that thereafter the IT department asked VDA to lodge an FIR.

Following its raids in the first week of October, IT department sleuths from Lucknow recently attached 45 flats constructed in the Varuna Gardens project, some floors of a commercial complex, and other assets of the Vinayak Group.