Cheque Stolen from Central Excise – Five Arrested
It seems in Pune, five persons including a lawyer and a Police Inspector's son were arrested for trying to cheat the Central Excise Department of Rs. 50.25 Lakhs.
The modus operandi : Somebody stole Cheque No. 637755 from the Office of the Assistant Commissioner, Pune VI Division, prepared fake rubber stamp of the Assistant Commissioner, forged his signature, opened a Bank account in the name of Siddhivinayak Construction company. It was an alert Bank clerk who smelt something fishy and checked with the Central Excise Department and found that no such cheque was issued by the Department.
When they came to the Bank to collect the booty, Police was waiting for them.
This incident once again proves that the system still has loopholes. How did the cheque get stolen from Central Excise? And how did the Bank open the account of a fictitious firm? What happened to KYC (Know Your Customer)?
Assistant Commissioners in Central Excise who leave the cheque books with Clerks and Sepoys should be more careful lest they should get into serious trouble. In this case, thanks to the alert Bank Clerk, the money was saved but that will not happen always.
The Department's accounting system is in shambles. They really don't know how much money they collect. There is always a difference between the duty payments as shown in the returns and the bank figures and they are not really bothered about reconciling these figures. Somebody gives you a GAR-7 – do you ever check with the Bank that the amount had been really credited?