Traders meet Police Commissioner

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, January 20

Representatives of various bodies of trade, commerce, along with district president of Youth Akali Dal Gurdip Singh Gosha, today met the Police Commissioner to lodge a complaint against certain GST officials who allegedly got a “false” case registered against a hosiery trader after extorting Rs 15 lakh at his business premises on January 15.

Alleging that one of the chartered accountants had also been implicated in the false FIR lodged with the police by the GST Department, the CAs, along with several other associations of taxation lawyers, staged a dharna at the GST Commissionerate demanding withdrawal of the case against one of their colleagues, Rajesh Mahajan.

At a meeting with the Commissioner of Police (CP), the traders lodged a formal complaint against officials of the GST Department alleging harassment and corruption with regard to an alleged raid conducted by the department officials on the business premises of a hosiery trader Naveen Jain in Purana Bazaar on January 15.

President of Business Bachao Morcha and Youth Akali Dal leader Gurdip Singh Gosha said copies of the complaint had also been sent to the Prime Minister, the GST Council, the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Director-General of Police, Punjab. He claimed that representatives of 51 bodies of traders had joined the protest against the GST officials.

Gosha, along with other prominent leaders of traders’ bodies, including Sunil Mehra, Harkesh Mittal, Balwinder Singh Bhullar, Sarabjit Singh Shunty, Sukhwinder Singh Babu and Manwinderpal Singh Middha, said the GST officials namely Narayan Singh, Sanjeev Verma, Anil Kumar, Prem Kumar, Kulwinder and Sanjay had gone to the hosiery unit of Naveen Jain and demanded Rs 15 lakh as bribe.

The trade leaders asserted that they had joined hands and would not allow officials of the GST, Income Tax and other government departments to harass the trade and industry and would launch a mass agitation if justice was denied to them.

The CAs staged a dharna in front of the office of CGST headquarters here as their demand for submission of memorandum to Principal Commissioner Ashutosh Baranwal was turned down. They insisted that they would continue their dharna till the official did not receive the memorandum himself.

The CAs, supported by Indirect Tax Consultants Association, Punjab Tax Bar, District Tax Bar Association and others alleged that Naveen Jain, a CA, had been falsely implicated with the GST raid on the unit