U'khand govt transfers tax officer, colleagues say 'it will hamper illegal timber trade case'

Hours before the Model Code of Conduct came into force on Saturday, the Uttarakhand State Tax Department transferred one of its senior officers with many of his colleagues expressing concern that his exit might hamper an illegal timber trade case that he was handling. Rajneesh S Yashawasthi, Deputy Commissioner, GST intelligence, who shot to fame for carrying out a forensic investigation against timber mafias in Udham Singh Nagar district and arrested the mastermind along with evidence of huge tax evasion, has been asked to move from Rudrapur to Nainital.

The revenue officials are also surprised to know the reason cited for Yashawasthi's transfer.

"His transfer order suggests that he didn't follow an administrative order issued on October 12, 2023, according to which he was supposed to arrest the mastermind Shahnawaz Hussain till October 18, 2023. However, the said accused was arrested four days later on October 22, 2023. What is quite surprising is that the transfer order was served now six months later," an officer said on the condition of anonymity.

IS Brijwal, Additional Commissioner, Headquarter, said, "The transfer order has come from the higher authority." Yashawasthi and his team unearthed the tax evasion racket in March 2023 and since then Hussain was on the run before falling into the officials' surveillance trap on October 22.

Yashawasthi's colleagues say that his transfer has come as a big blow to the case as his team was about to arrest another co-accused who is an office bearer of the local timber traders association.

The case hogged limelights as for the first time the GST department used digital tracking and electronic surveillance to bust a group of traders who floated fake firms to give a legal cover to their illegal trade of timber and its products, and evaded GST worth crores of rupees.

It launched a huge search and seizure operation named 'Operation D Day-Rising Woods' to unearth the racket in Jaspur area of Udham Singh Nagar district which is considered one of the biggest timber markets and from where products are supplied across the country.

The case exposed several links of similar rackets running in other states such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Bihar and Rajasthan.

The operation involved 27 teams with more than 300 tax and forensic officials and financial technology experts.

Over two dozen commercial establishments and residences of transporters, advocates and chartered accountants were raided that gave crucial information to the case.

The investigators, who tracked these illegal networks for the past nine months, found multiple firms floated by several persons with the sole purpose of defrauding the tax authorities.

The turnover in the illegal trade was estimated to be over Rs 100 crore with evasion of over Rs 18 crore of tax. The department has already deposited the recovery amount of Rs 5 crore in this case so far.

The Special Investigation Team filed a 3,500-page charge sheet in the court of Rudrapur Chief Judicial Magistrate where the case is still pending.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)