Alerted by the income tax department about alleged utilisation of a fake completion certificate for tax evasion by a local real estate company, the Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) has lodged an FIR with the police for further investigation in the case.
ACP Cantt, Atul Anjan Tripathi on Friday said that after getting a complaint from VDA, an FIR against real estate firm Vinayak Nirman Private Limited was lodged with Cantt police station on Wednesday. The case against the company was registered under section 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using as genuine any document) of IPC, he said, adding that investigation in this matter has been started by police.
The FIR was lodged by VDA zonal officer Prakash Kumar. The agency avoided mentioning the name of any official or employee of the company in this case.
On being contacted, VDA vice-chairman Abhishek Goyal said, “It was the initiative of the IT department. Following their investigation, the IT department had asked the VDA to verify the documents made available by the company regarding its projects including Varuna Gardens.”
The Varuna Gardens residential apartment was constructed just behind the VDA compound and has district headquarters and divisional commissioner’s residence in its vicinity. The VDA started verification of documents when it came to light that the project had been started with a sanctioned map. However, during this probe, VDA found that no such certificate was issued by the joint secretary of the authority to the real estate company for the project, Goyal said, adding that thereafter the IT department asked VDA to lodge an FIR.
The IT department sleuths from Lucknow recently attached 45 flats built in the Varuna Gardens project, some floors of a commercial complex and other assets of the Vinayak Group following its raids in October first week.
