Office boy from the slums gets Rs 5.4 crore I-T notice, for money-laundered by 4 others

Imagine you get a notice from the Income Tax department, out of the blue, stating that you own 4 companies and have to pay taxes due worth over Rs 5.4 crore. Such an outlandish shock was faced in reality by Ravi Jaiswal, a 32-year-old office assistant from Ganesh Deval Nagar slums in Bhayander (west), when he received a notice from the Income Tax department: To pay tax dues of over Rs 5.4 crore! According to the notice, he owned four companies.

He immediately approached Thane superintendent of police Mahesh Patil who directed a probe after examining his financial status.

The investigation revealed that Jaiswal's PAN and Aadhaar cards were used to start four bogus companies—Shayansh Corporation, Gem Redtech, State Ford Textiles and Purvi Realty— post-demonetisation.

Jaiswal told police that when he joined the firm of Kandivli-based chartered accountant Rajesh Agrawal in 2008, he was asked to submit his PAN and Aadhaar cards to open a bank account, but he got his salary in cash. In 2012, he left Agrawal and joined another firm.

After further investigation, Bhayander police on Saturday arrested Agrawal (42), his former business partner Rajeev Gupta (30) and his two employees, Juglesh Gupta (25) and Santosh Singh (32), for allegedly starting four bogus companies in Jaiswal's name to launder money. They have been sent to police custody by a Thane court.

According to police sources, Agrawal, a resident of Evershine Millennium Paradise, Thakur village, Kandivli (east), opened two bank accounts in Jaiswal's name post demonetisation by forging his signature. Rajeev, a Bhayander resident who had asked Jaiswal to join Agrawal's firm, left the firm in 2012 and started a gas agency. Police suspect that Juglesh and Santosh had done the paperwork for starting the bogus companies.

Police raided Agrawal's Malad office and seized a hard disk, documents and fake government rubber stamps. Police have learnt that they had started two more such companies.