Rs 27 lakh octroi evasion racket busted, two arrested

MUMBAI: The Mulund police on Wednesday arrested a 32-year-old employee of a Mulund-based octroi clearing company and 27-year-old distributor of cigarettes of different brands from Kalina for allegedly cheating and evading duty of Rs 27 lakh duty to the BMC.
The police said the distributor evaded duty to the BMC for nine months in 2008 and cleared several consignments by making bogus duty paid receipts with the help of a clearing agent of an octroi company at Mulund check-naka.
According to investigators, a vigilance officer at the BMC head office in CST found out about the fraud when he got a tip-off that from April 2008 to December 2008, a distributor managed to evade paying tax at the check-point in Mulund.
The BMC vigilance officer said, "An official kept an eye on the check-point and found out that Rajesh Thakkar employed with Arihant Octroi in Mulund used to make bogus receipts. The receipts showed the distributor Milan Hariya paid 7% tax for the goods that were brought into the city. This way the distributor escapes from paying tax.''
Based on the complaint lodged by the BMC officials on July 14, the investigating officers found that Thakkar who was employed with the octroi company, has left the job two months ago when he came to know the BMC is probing the matter, said R M Vhatkar, DCP (Zone VII). Assistant inspector Sanjay Sable of Mulund police station said that the two accused had duped the BMC for almost nine months without paying tax to bring the goods in the city.