MEERUT: In a surprise raid, sleuths of UP STF had found massive tax and excise evasion at a distillery company situated in the Tapri area of Saharanpur on March 3. Seven months later, the main accused Santlal Jaiswal with a reward of Rs 50,000 was arrested from Prayagraj, according to UP STF sources.
Consignments of liquor cartons used to leave the factory premises twice on the same invoice using the same vehicle, leading to excise tax evasion of Rs 32 lakh per consignment, sources added. After going through the books, it came to light that a tax evasion to the tune of Rs 100 crore a year was going on for some time.
The authorities were tightlipped when asked since when this alleged fraud was going on.
A similar raid has been conducted at the godowns of the excise department in Unnao. All those godowns are situated on the Kanpur-Lucknow Highway.
Company officials, excise department officers, transporters, warehouse managers, local distributors were involved in the alleged scam.
Jaiswal, a resident of Jaunpur, had been in the business of liquor distributorship for the past 15 years. He had godowns in Jaunpur. He used to procure the illegal consignments for distribution. Every consignment would fetch him Rs 15 lakh of profit, said an STF source.
"On March 3, in all 12 people were detained for questioning and later eight were booked under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (fraud) and 477 (fraudulent cancellation, destruction of valuable security) apart from relevant sections of the Excise Act," said circle officer STF (Meerut field unit) Brajesh Singh who was part of the team that conducted a raid in Saharanpur in March.
"Those arrested in March included transporter Satyavan Sharma, technical head of the company Kamal Daniel and HR head Virender Shankhdhar. However, Jaiswal was at large and recently the Varanasi field unit of UP STF got a tip-off that he was near the railway station in Prayagraj. He was then nabbed," the officer added.
