New Delhi: The Telangana Police has booked a Hyderabad-based chartered accountant for allegedly issuing fake 15CB certificates and facilitating illegal foreign remittances to the tune of Rs 600 crore.
The accused, identified as Sravan Kumar Putha, was booked by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Cyberabad Police on the inputs of the income tax department, which alleged that he issued such certificates without verifying the books of accounts of the companies he was issuing certificates to, as opposed to the requirement under the Income Tax Act and guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India.
15CBs are certificates issued by certified chartered accountants to validate foreign remittances exceeding Rs 5 lakh in a financial year.
Putha was booked under 318(4) (cheating), 234 (Issuing or signing a false certificate), and 229 (fabricating false evidence), read with 3(5) (common intention), of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023. Cyberabad EOW Deputy Commissioner of Police A. Muthyam Reddy said that Putha was arrested last week as part of the probe, but the local court refused to grant custody, citing that the punishment in all the sections was less than seven years.
Putha’s phone was out of reach when contacted for comment. ThePrint has dropped queries on his two email addresses. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The case against Putha came days after the income tax department conducted raids across the country against entities engaged in remitting funds abroad, allegedly found to be involved in providing accommodation entries against bogus donations and contributions. Central Board of Direct Taxes spokesperson V. Rajitha had said at the time of the raids that a large number of Form 15CB certificates were issued by a relatively small group of professionals, and that the funds remitted using those certificates were also received by a clustered group of entities.
“The remitted funds were also received by a clustered group of entities. Form 15CB, read with Rule 37BB of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 (corresponding to Form 146 read with Rule 220 of the income tax rules, 2026), requires the accountant certifying a foreign remittance to verify its taxability with reference to the books of account and other relevant documents. However, the findings raise concerns about whether adequate due diligence was carried out by the accountants before issuing these certificates,” Rajitha had said.
She had further said that the preliminary investigation had identified around 394 entities, including 117 in land-border states, and 36 professionals who were violating the established procedure.
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Ghost firms
In his complaint to the Cyberabad EOW, a deputy director-rank officer of the income tax department submitted that searches at Putha’s premises revealed that he had issued at least three 15CB certificates—one to Stockpile Softech Solutions and twice to Madhav Ram Ponapalli—from Andhra Pradesh. Using the 15CB certificate, Stockpile Softech Solutions allegedly remitted Rs 463.58 crore in the financial year 2022-23, while Ram Ponapalli remitted Rs 55.73 crore and Rs 109.99 crore in the financial years 23 and 24, respectively.
However, the income tax department allegedly found that none of these entities was at the addresses they submitted when securing the certificates. In the complaint, the department stated that Stockpile Softech Solutions never existed at the documented address; the premises listed as its address have been occupied by a different firm for the last five years. Moreover, the department submitted that “nobody in the surroundings also knows about the existence of the company M/s. Stockpile Softech Solutions Private Limited.
The department submitted that the firm has not filed income tax returns for the last few years despite sending such large outward remittances, suggesting it was nothing but a shell company.
The IT department further submitted that Putha’s statement was recorded during search proceedings and he allegedly conceded not to have either seen or verified any books of accounts or documents of the entities he issued certificates to.
“Thus, the Chartered Accountant Shri Sravan Kumar Putha has committed the offence u/s 234 r.w.s 229 BNS, 2023, which has in turn enabled the entities mentioned in the table in para-6 to commit the offence u/s 318(4) pertaining to cheating and financial fraud with the Public exchequer, which has larger economic ramifications,” the officer documented in the complaint.
“The furnishing of a ‘false certificate’ by the chartered accountant is the edifice on which the remittance(s) have been permitted at the instance of the entities mentioned in the table in para-6and is itself an offence committed and so intertwined with the violations /substantive offence(s) conceived and executed by the entities mentioned in the table in para-6.”
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)