Dharani Srinivasa Rao v. The State Of Telangana,

HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE U.DURGA PRASAD RAO Criminal Petition No.4596 of 2017 ORDER:

In this petition filed under Sections 437 and 439 Cr.P.C., petitioner/A9 seeks regular bail in Cr.No.52/2017 of Bodhan PS, Nizamabad District wherein the petitioner along with other accused allegedly committed offences under Sections 406, 420, 468 r/w 34 IPC.

2) On the report given by the Commercial Tax Officer, Bodhan Circle, the police of Bodhan PS registered the crime and investigation is reported to be pending.

3) The complaint allegations are that the enforcement staff of Commercial Tax Department on receipt of complaint conducted a preliminary enquiry and un-earthed a scam of forged challans in the Bodhan Circle for the period 2012-13 and 2013-14. A1 and A2- who are Tax Consultants are the main persons involved in the said scam. They with the active connivance of some of the officials of Bodhan Circle, created forged challans on behalf of dealers who had to pay taxes and conveniently mixed them along with the genuine challans and transferred the credit to the other dealers who resorted to fraudulent means to avoid payment of tax. Subsequently they managed the staff of CTO, Bodhan Circle and entered the full amount to the genuine dealer and also payment to the fraudulent dealers

thereby causing huge loss to the State exchequer. They used to append all stamps on the said bogus challans viz. Stamp of the Office of Commercial Tax Officer, Stamp of the Treasury Office and the stamp of the bank i.e. SBH along with signatures. Further, they also created forged challans without actual payment by concerned dealers and cheated the Government. Due to these illegal activities the Government has lost crores of rupees towards tax which was provisionally estimated at Rs.50 crores. It appears basing on the confessional statement of A2, police arrested petitioner/A9 who was working as Deputy Commissioner of Appeals.

4) Denying the charges, learned counsel for petitioner/A9 sought for bail mainly on the submission that except the alleged confessional statement of A2, there is no cogent material to connect the petitioner/A9 to the offence and he is innocent. He never helped A1 and A2 and no money or vehicles were given to petitioner/A9 as gifts as alleged and the flat for which wood work as done was also does not belong to petitioner/A9. It is further submitted that the fact that petitioner/A9 constituted committees to verify the accounts and challans and addressed letters in that regard to the District Treasury Officer to cooperate with the visiting team to verify the payment particulars would manifest that petitioner is innocent. It is also argued that the role of Deputy Commissioner was insignificant and the petitioner was not responsible for fraudulent receipts/payments.

5) Learned Addl.P.P. opposed the bail stating that a large scale scam was conducted by all the accused causing tax loss to the Government to a tune of crores of rupees and the investigation is in progress with regard to involvement of some others in department as well as outside. It is argued petitioner/A9 being a superior officer deliberately overlooked the monthly reconciliations and audit of CTO office for four years continuous and if granted bail, he will meddle with the investigation.

6) As can be seen, the CID department which is investigating the offence on confession of A2, came to know that A1 and A2 gave bribe to petitioner/A9 in the form of car, air-tickets, wood work to his benami flat etc. for facilitating fudging of challans towards tax payment. It is a case involving loss of crores worth of commercial tax to the Government manipulated by A1 and A2 who are the tax practitioners with the departmental officials and staff. There is a strong prima facie case against the petitioner/A9 and other accused. The investigation is under way. Merely because petitioner/A9 constituted committees for verification of tax payments and addressed letters to District Treasury Officer to cooperate with the visiting teams that cannot be taken as his innocence at the moment because, the proceedings Rc.No.E5/20/2016 dated 02.02.2016 was issued by him on account of orders of the superior officer i.e. Commissioner of Commercial Taxes but not out of his own accord. However, all these aspects need a thorough investigation. As the matter stands,

investigation is under way and petitioner/A9 if granted bail has the propensity to meddle with investigation.

7) The bail petition is accordingly dismissed.

As a sequel, miscellaneous petitions pending, if any, shall stand closed.

_________________________ U.DURGA PRASAD RAO, J Dt: 28.06.2017 Murthy