Bhopal,February 07 :THE figures are mindboggling. One serving IAS officer of the rank of a secretary, 220 bank accounts, assets worth Rs 40 crore, and all of this exposed after simultaneous raids by 200 Income- Tax Department investigators at 20 places across Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Two days after the raids began on Thursday morning, shocked IT officials were still recovering from the sheer audacity of Babulal Agrawal, a 1988 MP ( now Chhattisgarh) cadre IAS officer who rose to become the state agriculture secretary. Sources said the extent of corruption exposed the bureaucrat- businessman nexus in Chhattisgarh.
Income- Tax officials said Agrawal’s modus operandi included turning “ black” money into “ white” by opening fake bank accounts in the name of his domestic help, his cobbler, his gardener and even a local paan shop owner. The raids revealed that several IAS officers in the state had opened bank
accounts under fake names or in the name of their domestic helps.
Brajesh Gupta, director general of investigations ( IT) for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, confirmed the findings. “ We found Agrawal’s 220 bank accounts along with deposits of Rs 40 crore,” he said. “ Documents of benami firms and investment were also found.” Gupta also said that Babulal’s chartered accountant Sunil Agarwal confessed in a sworn affidavit submitted to the Income Tax department that all the accounts belonged to Babulal and that he had fudged the accounts on being told by the IAS officer to do so.
Sources said the chartered accountant wrote in his affidavit that he helped Babulal to convert his ill- gotten gains into “ white” money that could be used legally without getting detected. Gupta said Income Tax investigators had also raided the residence and office of Sunil Agarwal from where they recovered the 220 fake- account passbooks.
Babulal claimed that whatever property documents or cash Income Tax officials recovered from his residence had been declared in his Income Tax returns and intimated to the state government. He even added that the 220 passbooks found in the possession of his chartered accountant actually belonged to investors who wanted to buy shares in his father’s company Prime Ispat.
“ The raid is a conspiracy by vested interests to tarnish my image,” he said. He refused to comment or elaborate on the assets owned by his relatives and those disclosed by his chartered accountant. Babulal could have instigated the conspiracy.
Income Tax officials, however, say Agrawal’s claim has no basis.
Gupta said more than 60 Income Tax investigators were involved in the raid and that they had done due diligence before initiating the raids.
Officials said investigators are examining the several documents officer accountant. said were operation.