Pune: Former Additional Chief Secretary’s son cheated in tax evasion case

Pune: Unidentified persons misused the PAN card of former State Additional Chief Secretary Leena Mehendale’s son to evade tax amounting to crores of rupees in the past three years. The incident came to light after the Income Tax (I-T) Department issued a notice to her son.

Leena Prakash Mehendale, a resident of Kothrud, lodged a complaint at the Kothrud Police Station in this regard. A case has been registered against the unidentified persons misusing the PAN card.

According to the police, the I-T Department had sent a notice to Leena Mehendale’s son Aditya through email to pay the tax. The email mentioned his PAN card number. Since Aditya is working abroad, he is not liable to pay income tax in India. Therefore, his PAN card was not in use.

However, annual tax reduction was done in the house rent allowance of employees of 300 companies in the past three years by misusing Aditya’s PAN card. Mehendale then approached the police.

Sr PI Sandip Deshmane said, “The PAN card of former IAS officer Leena Mehendale has been misused. A case has been registered against unidentified persons.”

Probe will be launched

Companies pay house rent to their employees staying on rent. The I-T Department gives concession in tax if house rent allowance is mentioned in the ITR. To avail this concession, Aditya Mehendale’s PAN card has been misused. Whether the companies concerned misused the PAN card to avail the benefit or employees forged documents and cheated needs to be probed, said the police.