Nagpur: Chandrashekhar Kohad, a petty contactor who was slapped with a Rs314 crore tax notice, had also received summons from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier, but did not respond to it.
The papers shared by Kohad show he was originally served a tax demand of Rs185 crore for income calculated during the assessment years 2011-12 to 2015-16. This swelled to Rs314 crore after adding interest. During these years, he alleged received huge sums in his account in a cooperative credit society in Itwari locality at Nagpur. Kohad claims that he was unaware that funds running into crores were coming into his account.
In 2020, he had been served summons by the ED’s Vizag office. Kohad says he did not respond as he could not afford to go all the way to Vizag. Even on Tuesday, Kohad drove down 121km on a bike from Multai in Madhya Pradesh, where he lives these days, to reach the income tax office here.
The concerned tax recovery officer, who served him the notice, was on leave. The other staffers advised that he could file an appeal with the Commissioner of Income Tax (CIT) appeals. Originally from Nagpur, Kohad now lives in Multai, where he was served the notice.
He had also brought the ED notice served to him to Nagpur. It had a list of 42 shell companies. The agency had asked Kohad if he ever had any dealings with these entities.
Searching the filings with the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), the companies’ links could be traced to a Rs560 crore hawala scam being investigated in Vizag, from where Kohad got an ED notice.
The scam kingpin, Mahesh Vaddi, who was arrested in 2017, was found to be a director in over a dozen of these companies at some point in time. In at least five, he continues to be a director. A number of companies mentioned in the ED notice are already under the scanner. The first entity in the notice, Padmapriya Stone Crushing Private Limited, is based in Vizag, where Vaddi belongs. Most of the other companies have their registered addresses in Kolkata. Six are located at the same address — 840/2 Lake Town, Kolkata. The rest have their registered addresses at Delhi, Pune, and Secunderabad.
Kohad got the tax notice after a huge income was assessed in his name on account of the cooperative bank deposits. Kohad says he does not remember the society’s name exactly. “It’s Shrinath Mangalam Cooperative Society or maybe Mangalam Cooperative, located near Tonga Stand at Itwari,” he told TOI while waiting outside the income tax office.
Kohad said he preferred to park his money in a cooperative society because he could go to a daily collection agent from there. Now, he does not even recall how much of his own money was in the account. The society’s accounts were sealed after a scam, he says.
Kohad says even 10-15 others got huge sums in their accounts. He alleges that the cooperative society’s management misused his account for money laundering. “I didn’t even know how much money came into the account. If the tax liability itself is Rs314 crore, imagine how much money would have gone into it,” he said.
By evening, a visibly tired Kohad had decided to stay in Nagpur for a day. His friends who accompanied him said he barely has any means. Even in Multai, he lives in a rented home and is in a hand-to-mouth situation, he said.
(With inputs from Mugdha Bele)
The papers shared by Kohad show he was originally served a tax demand of Rs185 crore for income calculated during the assessment years 2011-12 to 2015-16. This swelled to Rs314 crore after adding interest. During these years, he alleged received huge sums in his account in a cooperative credit society in Itwari locality at Nagpur. Kohad claims that he was unaware that funds running into crores were coming into his account.
In 2020, he had been served summons by the ED’s Vizag office. Kohad says he did not respond as he could not afford to go all the way to Vizag. Even on Tuesday, Kohad drove down 121km on a bike from Multai in Madhya Pradesh, where he lives these days, to reach the income tax office here.
The concerned tax recovery officer, who served him the notice, was on leave. The other staffers advised that he could file an appeal with the Commissioner of Income Tax (CIT) appeals. Originally from Nagpur, Kohad now lives in Multai, where he was served the notice.
He had also brought the ED notice served to him to Nagpur. It had a list of 42 shell companies. The agency had asked Kohad if he ever had any dealings with these entities.
Searching the filings with the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), the companies’ links could be traced to a Rs560 crore hawala scam being investigated in Vizag, from where Kohad got an ED notice.
The scam kingpin, Mahesh Vaddi, who was arrested in 2017, was found to be a director in over a dozen of these companies at some point in time. In at least five, he continues to be a director. A number of companies mentioned in the ED notice are already under the scanner. The first entity in the notice, Padmapriya Stone Crushing Private Limited, is based in Vizag, where Vaddi belongs. Most of the other companies have their registered addresses in Kolkata. Six are located at the same address — 840/2 Lake Town, Kolkata. The rest have their registered addresses at Delhi, Pune, and Secunderabad.
Kohad got the tax notice after a huge income was assessed in his name on account of the cooperative bank deposits. Kohad says he does not remember the society’s name exactly. “It’s Shrinath Mangalam Cooperative Society or maybe Mangalam Cooperative, located near Tonga Stand at Itwari,” he told TOI while waiting outside the income tax office.
Kohad said he preferred to park his money in a cooperative society because he could go to a daily collection agent from there. Now, he does not even recall how much of his own money was in the account. The society’s accounts were sealed after a scam, he says.
Kohad says even 10-15 others got huge sums in their accounts. He alleges that the cooperative society’s management misused his account for money laundering. “I didn’t even know how much money came into the account. If the tax liability itself is Rs314 crore, imagine how much money would have gone into it,” he said.
By evening, a visibly tired Kohad had decided to stay in Nagpur for a day. His friends who accompanied him said he barely has any means. Even in Multai, he lives in a rented home and is in a hand-to-mouth situation, he said.
(With inputs from Mugdha Bele)
