Fraudster caught red-handed in Jalandhar

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 his job 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 President 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 Nagapal. 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. The meeting between Dhir and Thakur
was planned. Members of JCDA who were hiding on the first floor came out and
confronted the accused while the meeting was in progress. “We took all the 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
amounts of money from various dealers, but since all are not coming out 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.

On Thursday, members of JCDA met with PS Gill, 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.