Mehsana: An FIR has been filed against Congress MLA Mahendrasinh Vaghela's company Digvijay Paper Mills and nine other firms for alleged evasion of Rs 21.71 lakh Value Added Tax by forging documents, police said today.
The Congress MLA, however, denied the charges as "baseless".
The FIR against the firm of Mahendrasinh, the son of Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankarsinh Vaghela, comes days after CBI had filed a case against the senior leader on June 17 in the alleged Rs 709-crore scam in sale of National Textile Corporation land in Mumbai.
"We have filed an FIR against Mahendrasinh Vaghela's company Digvijay Paper mills and nine other firms of Mehsana for usurping VAT of Rs 21,71,731 by preparing bogus stamps and documents," Investigating officer of the case Sub Inspector N M Chaudhari told PTI.
Mahendrasinh is a Congress MLA from the Bayad assembly constituency in Gujarat's Arvalli district, while his father Shankarsinh represents Kapadvanj in Kheda district.
According to the investigating officer, Mahendrasinh and others were charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 406 (Breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document).
The FIR was registered on the basis of complaint filed by Mehsana Sales Tax Commissioner Amit Patel, stating Mahendrasinh and others have forged documents and stamps and evaded duty of Rs 21.71 lakh, Chaudhari said.
Further investigation in the case is on, Chaudhari said.
Mahendrasinh denied the charges against him as "baseless" and said he would "go to the root of the case and will find out on whose behest the case was filed".
"The firm owners did not pay VAT duty themselves, it was paid through their advocates, so the police cannot frame the firm owners," Mahendrasinh told reporters today.
"The case is against ten companies, that shows there must have been involvement of advocates and sales tax officials because firm owners cannot do cheating as we were getting receipts of VAT filing on regular basis," he said.
"The documents have name of advocate consultants, then why did the police file FIR against firm owners?" he asked, adding that the allegations are "baseless".
"I will go to the root of the case and will find out on whose behest the case was filed and how this has been done," Mahendrasinh added.
