Bhind (Madhya Pradesh): A dhaba cook from Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind was shocked to receive an Income Tax Department notice over ₹46 crore suspicious transactions from a bank account opened in his name without his knowledge.
According to reports, the cook, identified as Ravindra Singh Chauhan, resident of Gandhi Nagar, works at a roadside eatery in Gwalior. According to him, his yearly bank transactions do not exceed ₹3 lakh.
He says, "I work at a roadside restaurant; not even three lakh rupees worth of transactions happen in my account annually, so how could a notice for crores of rupees come?"
In April, a government notice arrived at his home. The notice was in English and was sent by the Income Tax Department. Since Ravindra was working in Pune at that time and no one in his family was well-educated, they couldn't understand the notice. Then, another similar notice arrived in July, and the family informed Ravindra.
When Ravindra returned from Pune, he consulted a local lawyer, Advocate Pradyumn Singh Bhadoriya, who revealed that the notices were linked to transactions of over ₹46.18 crore.
Hearing this, Ravindra was stunned, as he works as a cook at a roadside restaurant; there was no way such a large amount of money could have transacted in his bank account.
On further inquiry, Ravindra obtained a five-year statement from his Punjab National Bank account in Bhind, which confirmed that his account had minimal activity.
Shockingly, with the help of the bank manager, he discovered another account in his name at the Uttam Nagar branch in Delhi. This account, allegedly opened by his former supervisor Shashi Bhushan, was linked to a company named Shaurya Traders and had been used for crores worth of financial transactions.
Ravindra alleged that Bhushan had misled him years ago by opening the account in his name when he worked at a toll plaza mess in Gwalior. Despite Ravindra’s objection, the account was never closed, and he was falsely assured that it had been shut down.
Currently, the fraudulent account still holds ₹12.5 lakh, while Ravindra insists he has no connection with the company or the money.
The cook has filed complaints with the Sirole police station, the SP’s grievance cell, and the State Cyber Cell in Gwalior, but he claims no concrete action has been taken so far. Therefore, he urges the police to take cognizance of the matter and take action against the culprits without delay.
