Bengaluru, June 17 (IANS) Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Bangalore Zonal Office, has attached approximately Rs 1.80 crore of Tax deducted at source (TDS) credited against fraudulently obtained PAN in connection with the Karnataka double compensation scam, said the ED on Tuesday.

The money has been seized under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The scam had taken place in the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), Dharwad, the ED said.

ED further underlined that approximately Rs 46 crore has been withdrawn in cash from the bank accounts opened using fictitious PANs. Tax deducted at the time of cash withdrawal under section 194-N of the IT Act has been credited to these PANs. Such TDS, which is Proceeds of Crime, has now been provisionally attached.

“This scam was perpetrated by V.D. Sajjan, a retired Special Land Acquisition Officer, Dharwad, in collusion with other accused persons.

ED investigation under PMLA, 2002 has uncovered the modus operandi used by the accused persons to fraudulently claim and withdraw double compensation from KIADB in the name of persons who had already received compensation or who had already passed away, the ED stated.

The ED has already attached properties amounting to Rs 11 crore in this case earlier.

The ED stated: “The accused persons had adopted fake identities for withdrawal of fraudulent compensation in connivance with KIADB officials and Bank officials. Applications were submitted by the accused persons to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADI) for updating their demographic details like name, address and mobile number in the Aadhar database in order to impersonate genuine land owners in whose name preliminary notification for land acquisition was notified, which was subsequently accepted.”

Accordingly, fake Aadhar identities impersonating the genuine land owners were created. Using these fake identities, which are updated Aadhar, fictitious PANs were obtained. These PAN cards obtained were used to open bank accounts in collusion with bank officials, the ED stated.

Applications were again submitted before KIADB for claiming second-time compensation by using fake identities. These illegal second-time compensations were sanctioned by the KIADB officials in collusion with the accused persons. These compensations were credited in the bank accounts opened with fictitious PANs, which were immediately withdrawn in cash with the collusion of bank officials, the ED said.

At the time of cash withdrawal, TDS as per section 194-N of the IT Act, 1961, was deducted and credited against these PANs. The TDS credited against these fictitious PANs are nothing but Proceeds of Crime (POC), the ED noted.

After withdrawing the fraudulent compensation, the demographic details such as name, address and mobile number in the Aadhar database were again modified (reverted back) to the original identity. This has been confirmed after obtaining the Aadhar records of several individuals from the Unique Identification Authority of India as per the order of the High Court of Karnataka, the ED stated.

The illegal compensation obtained through this method was distributed among the accused persons. In some cases, this entire exercise was done in the name of deceased landowners, who had already received full and final compensation, the ED said.

The ED investigations revealed that in a few cases, genuine landowners also colluded with the accused persons and claimed second time compensation which was sanctioned illegally, and the proceeds were distributed among the accused persons.

Further investigation is in progress.

–IANS

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