Fraudster caught red-handed in Jalandhar

Jalandhar

June 9, 2008

A month after partners in Jalandhar were subject to sales tax raids, they are
now embroiled in another case, but one they have been able to successfully
resolve on their own. Last month, The DQ Week reported that sales tax officials
had raided the offices of a few partners in Jalandhar. Vikram Thakur, alias
Rajeev Sharma, present during all the raids, was hired by the sales tax
department as a data recovery expert, and was helping them to find the company
data from partners' computers. But Thakur decided to misuse this position to
make money.

“Post the raids Thakur would return to the partner's office and threaten
them saying he could manipulate the data he had if they did not give him money,”
said Rajiv Khanna, Proprietor, Computer Touch and spokesperson of Jalandhar
Computer Dealers Association (JCDA). It was only after he tried this trick with
a few partners that the channel started getting suspicious.

Manish Nagpal of Impel Infosys was one of the victims of Thakur's
fraudulent activity. Thakur was able to extort a total of Rs 30,000 from Nagpal.
“I filed an FIR against him and submitted all the evidence I had,” said
Nagpal.

Last week Thakur threatened Puneet Dhir of Dhir & Co who immediately
submitted a written complaint to Harbir Singh, Assistant Excise and Taxation
Commissioner (AETC), Jalandhar. But Thakur persisted, and on June 4 he
threatened Dhir to pay up Rs 10,000 or he would manipulate Dhir's data.

That was when JCDA decided to step in. A meeting between Dhir and Thakur was
planned and members of JCDA who were hiding on the first floor came out and
confronted the accused while the meeting was in progress. “We took video
clippings, pictures and other evidence of him blackmailing partners, and handed
them over to the police,” claimed Khanna.

“We asked him to return our money which was amounting to approximately Rs
1.20 lakh, but he said that he did not have any,” said Khanna. The amount that
the accused has actually taken is expected to be on the higher side as he has
duped quite a few partners in the region. But many partners are not willing to
speak up for fear of being dragged into a legal mess.

“Thakur took different sum of money from various dealers, but since all are
willing to come on record and saying how much money he extracted from them we
don't know exactly how much he has managed to amass,” said Nagpal.

Members of JCDA handed Thakur over to the police who lodged an FIR against
him and put him in police remand for two days.

Last Thursday, members of JCDA met with PS Gill, Deputy Excise & Taxation
Commissioner (DETC), Jalandhar. “Gill assured us that no sales tax official is
related in the matter. He also said they have not given Thakur any authority to
visit any dealer on his own,” shared Khanna.