Hyderabad: Former Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, along with four other accused, has been booked in scam related to evasion of over Rs 1,400 crore Goods and Services Tax, Hyderabad Police said on Monday.
The former chief secretary allegedly favoured unscrupulous companies by ordering changes in the IIT-Hyderabad-designed scrutiny module of the tax department, allowing the irregularities to go undetected, police said.
Somesh Kumar has been named in a first information report (FIR), for criminal breach of trust and conspiracy, along with Additional Commissioner of Commercial Taxes S V Kasi Vishwaswara Rao, Deputy Commissioner (Hyderabad Rural) Sivaram Prasad, IIT-Hyderabad Assistant Professor Sobhanbabu, and Plinto Technology Private Limited, said the Central Crime Station (CCS).
Based on a complaint filed by Commercial Tax Joint Commissioner Ravi Kanuru regarding GST evasion amounting to thousands of crores, the CCS has listed Somesh Kumar as Accused Officer (AO-5). A case has been registered under IPC sections 406, 409, and 120B, along with the IT Act, against those involved in the scam.
According to the FIR, the preliminary investigation conducted by the Commercial Tax office revealed a loss of Rs 1,000 crore in GST from the State Beverages Corporation alone, with another Rs 400 crore evaded by 11 other companies. Around 75 companies have been found guilty of irregularities. The scam was uncovered during a forensic audit of the State Beverages Corporation’s records.
Additionally, ‘BigLeap Technologies,’ which provides human resources, claimed an input tax credit of Rs 25.51 crores without paying any tax. An internal investigation revealed significant irregularities.
IIT-Hyderabad, acting as a service provider to the Commercial Taxes Department, was responsible for detecting irregularities in IT returns filed by taxpayers in Telangana and analyzing the data. However, the ‘Scrutiny Module’ designed by IIT-Hyderabad failed to identify the irregularities of BigLeap Technologies. It has been explained that the module could be altered, and such changes were made under the directions of Somesh Kumar, allowing the irregularities to go undetected.
A WhatsApp group named “Special Initiatives” was also created for this purpose, with Somesh Kumar, Kasi Vishwaswara Rao, and Sivaram Prasad as members. Professor Sobhanbabu received instructions through the WhatsApp group. During the internal investigation, it was stated that the WhatsApp group was stopped in December 2022, but it continued until January 2024.
