Fire at I-T department 03 Jun 2018: Fire at I-T department's office destroys Nirav files, department refuses According to sources, files on the absconding Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, and several others wanted for economic offenses were destroyed in a major fire at the premises of the Income Tax Department in Mumbai on Friday. A conclusive report is yet to be received as the assessment of the extent of damage caused will take a few days. However, after the news went viral, the I-T department refused it. The fire: Details of the incident The fire broke out at the Scindia House building in South Mumbai's Ballard Estate area around 5pm on Friday, and raged on till the wee hours of Saturday. Cooling operations concluded on Saturday evening, at which point I-T and Debt Recovery Tribunal officials managed to enter the premises. Both the I-T and the Tribunal's offices were completely gutted. Fact: Here is I-T department's statement Gutted documents: Gutted documents were on economic offenders, bankrupt corporations Sources within the I-T department revealed that documents pertaining to the investigations on Modi, Choksi, their associates, as well as documents relating to the Essar group had been destroyed in the fire. The lost documents pertained to people who were either being investigated for banking frauds or were part of bankruptcy proceedings. Investigations: Was the fire deliberately started? The cause of the fire is unknown as of now. But, if true, further delay in the investigations can be expected, they said. Interestingly, RTI activist Anil Galgali suggested that the fire might have been deliberately started by those with vested interests. We leave it to the readers' sensibilities to decide if the fire actually destroyed the documents or not.<doc-sep>So, the government has finally come out with a clarification saying that none of the documents related to defaulter Nirav Modi has been gutted in the fire, as it was reported yesterday. “News reports have been appearing in some sections of the media alleging that records and documents relating to investigation into the Nirav Modi (and) Mehul Choksi case have been destroyed in the Scindia House fire in Income Tax Office in Mumbai,” the CBDT said in a statement. bccl/gettyimg “It is hereby clarified the said reports are completely false and misdirected,” it said. The I-T clarified that the documents and records of the ongoing investigations into the case had already been transferred to the assessment units housed in different buildings as part of the assessment process. afp “Apprehensions about any loss or damage to the records and documents relating to the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi case in the said fire at the IT Office are, therefore, misplaced,” the statement said. The I-T department is investigating the over Rs 13,400 crore banking fraud.<doc-sep>A massive fire at the Income Tax (investigations) officer in Scindia house, Ballard Estate at 4;30 pm on Friday has suspected enveloped important files related to defaulters like Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. The fire brigade department said that dousing operation was challenging as the massive amount of files and wooden work inside the premises became fodder to fire. No casualties were reported. The fire that covered around 12000 sq feet on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the five-storied building. Six people were rescued from the building. Prabhat Rahangdale, Chief Fire Officer) "We have parked two fire engines on the spot as precautionary measures," said Deputy Fire Officer Rajendra Chaudhary, "At least 120 firemen were pushed to service for the fire-fighting operations. Many cupboards had fallen on the floors, and we opened them, we found that the papers and files inside were ablaze. It was time-consuming time to extinguish the fire. Each floor of the building is around 4000 sqft." The cause of the fire hasn’t been declared by the fire brigade, but activists smell sabotages as the offices charred contained important files pertaining to the investigation into the Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, and Mehul Choksi cases. Police said the investigations are on. "As the building housed the investigation cell of the Income Tax department, it had files and documents pertaining to cases that were being probed in Mumbai and Maharashtra," said a senior Income Tax official. "They have all been burned. We are not authorised to divulge information about the documents and the cases we are probing. It will take us time to take the stock of the damage." "We are taking statements and investigating the cause of the fire," said senior police inspector of MRA Marg police station Sukhlal Varpe, adding, "People say they saw a short circuit. We cannot comment on the intention of sabotage." Indian Express The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has asked the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) which is the planning authority of Scindia House to carry structural audit before allowing the department to start working there again.<doc-sep>The Income Tax Department on Sunday quashed reports that claimed that records and documents related to the investigation of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi were destroyed in the fire in the Mumbai office. Taking to Twitter, the department said, "News reports appearing in some sections of media alleging that records/documents relating to investigation of Nirav Modi/Mehul Choksi have been destroyed in the Scindia House fire in IT Office, Mumbai are completely false & misdirected (Sic)." The fire broke out in the Income Tax office in South Mumbai on Friday, but no casualties were reported The blaze started on the third floor of the I-T office located in multi-storeyed Scindia House. "Five fire engines, four water tankers along with adequate number of fire brigade personnel were rushed to the site to douse the flames," the official said. No injuries were reported, but one person trapped on the second floor of the commercial building was rescued by firefighters, he said. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, the official said. The building, a well-known landmark in South Mumbai, also houses the office of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT). With PTI Inputs<doc-sep>
The Central Board of Direct Taxes on Sunday refuted reports that files on fugitive businessman Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in connection with the Rs 13,000-crore fraud case involving the Punjab National Bank were damaged in a fire, IANS reported. On June 1, a massive fire, had broken out at Mumbai’s Scindia House in Ballard Estate. The building houses the offices of the Income Tax department and the Debt Recovery Tribunal. This tribunal housed documents and evidence related to many cases, including the Nirav Modi loan default. The fire was put out after about 12 hours. The Central Board of Direct Taxes said the documents connected with the investigation into the scam were transferred to assessment units that were not affected by the fire. “News reports have been appearing in some sections of the media alleging that records and documents relating to investigation into the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi case have been destroyed in the Scindia House fire,” it said in a statement. “It is hereby clarified the said reports are completely false and misdirected. Apprehensions about any loss or damage to the records and documents relating to the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi case in the said fire at the IT Office are, therefore, misplaced.” On Sunday, citing news reports, the Congress claimed the fire was “convenient”. “In a rather convenient turn of events, a fire burned papers that the Income Tax Department had on Nirav Modi, the man who was photographed with PM Modi before he went on the run after pulling off the largest banking fraud in India,” the party said in a tweet. In a rather convenient turn of events, a fire burned papers that the Income Tax Department had on Nirav Modi , the man who was photographed with PM Modi before he went on the run after pulling off the largest banking fraud in India. https://t.co/ps72fm9AFt — Congress (@INCIndia) June 3, 2018 The PNB scam The Punjab National Bank informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on February 14 that it had detected “fraudulent and unauthorised transactions” worth Rs 11,380 crore at its Brady House branch in South Mumbai. The bank revised this figure to Rs 12,703 crore and later to around Rs 13,645 crore. A few officials of the public sector bank had allegedly issued fraudulent Letters of Undertaking – essentially letters of credit telling others banks that it would meet a customer’s liabilities – to Modi’s companies. Several bank officials have been arrested and are under investigation.