Indian Technomac director arrested in Rs 6,000 cr fraud

Indian Technomac Company Limited director Vinay Kumar Sharma was finally arrested on Wednesday after four years of investigation into an alleged Rs 6,000-crore fraud. Sharma was produced before a local court, which remanded him to three-day police (CID) custody. The accused is the son of IAS officer ML Sharma, the former deputy Commissioner of Himachal Pradesh' Sirmour district. The Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh-based Indian Technomac had allegedly shut its manufacturing operations under suspicious circumstances in March 2014. The top management, too, fled the Jagatpur village campus without paying the dues, including wages or provident fund, to its employees. The company had also not settled the payments for income tax, sales tax and electricity bills. The fraud was being probed by various state departments and agencies for the past four years. Sharma was arrested after two FIRs were filed against him. The first one involved the payment of dues to the state electricity board through bank transfers using fake real-time gross settlement facility. The FIR also included tax evasion charges, Benami land purchases and violation of Section 118 of the Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reform Act, 1972. Established in 2009, the RoC-registered company had availed benefits under central sales tax exemption norms by forging bank documents. It did not pay any sales tax till 2014 and subsequently shut shop without notice. On March 12, the state Excise and Taxation Department filed an FIR with the Majra police station, against Indian Technomac managing director Rakesh Kumar Sharma and its three directors -- Vinay Sharma, Ranjan Mohan and Ashwani Saahu -- for cheating and forgery. All four have been booked under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. Officials in the state Excise and Taxation Department said it had suffered losses of Rs 2,175.51 crore. Several banks were also duped of Rs 2,167 crore. The company owed Rs 750 crore to the Income Tax Department. Other departments, such as the state electricity board, EPF, labour department also suffered heavy losses. The CID team has issued a look-out notice Rakesh Sharma, the main accused in the case, but suspects he may have fled the country. Pramod Chauhan, DSP, Paonta Sahib, said the investigation was underway. Source: Business Standard