New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) says it has uncovered a conspiracy to sabotage the Faceless Assessment Scheme, a government initiative to curb corruption in tax assessments.
The agency has booked nine people, including Dinesh Kumar Agrawal, who the Income Tax (I-T) Department in its complaint identified as a chartered accountant and “former president of the Delhi Hindu Yuva Vahini”. The other accused—I-T deputy commissioner Vijayendran R and two department inspectors—allegedly leaked sensitive information to a nexus of chartered accountants led by Agrawal.
Contacted by ThePrint, Hindu Yuva Vahini national president Vikram Singh Rathore said Agrawal had never been the outfit’s Delhi president and has been misusing its name.
Two days after booking 2015 batch IRS officer Vijayendran R, who was posted as deputy commissioner at Central Circle-1 in New Delhi, along with his subordinates and group of chartered accountants, the anti-corruption agency Thursday raided 18 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Thane, West Champaran, Bengaluru and Kottayam in Kerala.
According to the I-T Department’s complaint to the CBI, which formed the basis of an FIR lodged Tuesday, Agrawal led the network that exploited sensitive information leaked by Vijayendran to sabotage the department’s faceless assessment mechanism.
The Faceless Assessment Scheme was launched in October 2019 to enhance the ease of compliance for taxpayers while improving transparency and efficiency by removing direct interaction between an assessee and tax officials.
“A preliminary enquiry has further revealed that a nexus of chartered accountants in criminal conspiracy with the officials of Income Tax Department are defying the purpose of the faceless scheme of assessment in Income Tax Department by way of revealing the confidential information lying with the department and taking undue advantage to the assessee for pecuniary benefits,” said the FIR.
The FIR added that Income Tax Deputy Commissioner Vijayendra, department inspectors Dinesh Kumar Verma and Binayak Sharma had been “found involved in sharing of sensitive income tax data pertaining to pending assessment appeal cases/high-value refund cases and details of faceless assessing officers” with Dinesh Kumar Agrawal, “who posed as CA and other CAs in lieu of illegal pecuniary consideration”.
The case and subsequent searches come nearly four months after the Income Tax (I-T) Department wrote to the CBI seeking a preliminary enquiry against Vijayendran and the two inspectors—Dinesh Kumar Verma and Binayak Sharma—for allegedly leaking information. This included a list of high-value pending income tax assessment cases and high-value refund cases in faceless assessment proceedings, allegedly shared with Dinesh Kumar Agrawal in exchange for monetary compensation.
In its complaint to the CBI, the I-T department also identified Agrawal as a politician who contested the 2024 general election as an independent candidate from Bihar’s Valmiki Nagar constituency and had been engaged in campaign activities of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
The agency initiated a preliminary inquiry based on a complaint from a Director General of Income Tax-level officer of the department, which in March 2023 was alerted about the alleged nexus of these officers and CAs by Akshay Mitish Kumar Modi of Gujarat-based cooperative Shree Khedut Sahakari Khand Udyog Mandli.
How the nexus operated
In October last year, the Income Tax Department searched premises linked to Agrawal and found he was allegedly working as a liaising agent between officials of various departments such as the IT, customs, GST and road construction.
During its probe, the department found several purported WhatsApp chats between Vijayendran and Agrawal, in which Vijayendran shared lists of Assessing Officers (AOs) and Commissioners of Income Tax, along with cases and their corresponding financial quantum.
Agrawal then allegedly shared these lists with a group of chartered accountants who were part of the nexus. Their role was to reach out to assessees and offer favourable settlements in faceless assessment cases.
The department alleged in its complaint to the CBI that two broader modules were in place. In the first, Agarwal used to identify a list of cases where a high-value refund was pending, and then CAs in the network reached out to the assesses and offered early processing of the cases.
In cases where proceedings were pending, details of issues in the cases and potential additional help were shared with the group of CAs to further reach out to potential assesses and then facilitate communication between them and the Assessing Officer for quick disposal of cases.
This group of CAs had made connections with department officials and earmarked nodal CAs in different regions to reach out to potential assesses in their respective areas, the Income Tax Department submitted in its report to the CBI.
The lid was blown off from the alleged nexus when Modi, the complainant to the Income Tax Department, allegedly received a WhatsApp call on 17 March 2023 from Agarwal, promising a favourable result in a pending case against him. However, as he did not entertain the offer, a show cause notice was served shortly thereafter.
The number used for calling Modi was registered in the name of a Delhi resident, Sunny, who turned out to be Agarwal’s security guard and driver for four years. When summoned by the I-T Department, he said in his statement that he provided a SIM in his name to Agrawal. He also stated that Agrawal claimed to be a former president of the Delhi Hindu Yuva Vahini.
Vijayendran was suspended in November last year days before the CBI began the preliminary enquiry.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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So this is how the BJP accumulates wealth. Now wonder it is by far the richest Indian political party. At this rate, it might become the richest political party in the world as well.