New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) The CBI on Thursday conducted searches at 18 locations across the country after registering a case against an IRS officer and other officials of the Income Tax department who were allegedly sharing sensitive data on pending assessment with a group of chartered accountants by sidestepping the faceless assessment system, officials said.

In its FIR the CBI has booked Deputy Commissioner Income Tax Vijayendra R posted at Jhandewalan office in New Delhi, purported CA Dinesh Kumar Agrawal, Income Tax inspectors Dinesh Kumar Verma and Binayak Sharma besides five more chartered accountants, they said.

The other CAs booked in the case are Shivratan Mangelal Singrodia, Bhavesh Parshottambhai Rakholia, Prathik Lenin, Malik Girish Anand and Sushil Kumar.

"Recently the government of India has introduced a series of futuristic reforms in Direct Tax administration for the benefit of taxpayers and the economy. 'Faceless Scheme of assessment' is one such reform where there is no human interface between taxpayers and tax officials," CBI's spokesperson said in a statement.

The racket of CAs, in active assistance and criminal conspiracy, with some income tax officials were unauthorisedly and clandestinely disclosing the names of assessing officers and appellate officers to the assessees and also unauthorisedly using the sensitive income tax data pertaining to pending assessment or appeal cases and high refund cases to approach the assessee concerned or his CA for pecuniary benefits, it said.

The CBI conducted searches in Delhi, Mumbai, Thane, West Champaran (Bihar), Bengaluru, Kottayam (Kerala), etc in which incriminating documents, evidences of payment of undue gratification and some digital electronic evidences have been recovered during searches, the statement said.

The FIR was registered after culmination of a preliminary enquiry initiated on a complaint from the Income Tax department.

It was alleged in the complaint that the Income Tax department had conducted a search on Agrawal last year and during analysis of his phone it emerged that there was a network of chartered accountants which was revealing identities of assessing officers working in faceless assessment system by taking undue benefits.

Agrawal either himself or through other CAs and private persons working as nodal officers in different states approached the assessees and offered to settle the pending case in their favour in exchange of a certain pecuniary benefit, the complaint and PE findings which are now part of the FIR alleged.

It is alleged that they tried to defy and sabotage the purpose of 'the Faceless Scheme of Assessment' introduced by the government, the CBI spokesperson said.

"The information disclosed by these accused facilitates the assessee to physically contact the Assessing/Appellate officer. Thus, the accused were trying to sabotage the 'Faceless Scheme of Assessment' brought in by the Government of India," the CBI statement said.

Agrawal claimed to be a political leader and that he had campaigned for the BJP leaders besides making claims to be working as liaisoning agent for various government departments, the complaint documents said.

From the analysis of his phone, the tax department also found chats with a number which Agrawal claimed to be of Deputy Income Tax Commissioner and 2015 batch IRS officer Vijayendra R.

The chats show that the information regarding assessment officers (AOs) etc and issues along with quantum in various pending cases in faceless proceedings were shared by Vijayendra with Agrawal, the tax department has alleged.

"This information is then being shared by Dinesh Kumar Agarwal with various CAs to coordinate with interested assesses for favourable settlement with faceless AOs/CsIT(A)," it said.

The department said Shri Vijayendra R has owned up that concerned mobile in his statement.

The CBI PE however found that Vijayendra R and Inspectors allegedly shared sensitive information with Agrawal following which they were booked in the case. PTI ABS ZMN

Unauthorized disclosure of faceless assessment identities triggers FIR and nationwide searches alleging conspiracy between tax officials and chartered accountants. Allegations detail a network in which tax officials and chartered accountants allegedly disclosed identities of assessing and appellate officers and case details from the Faceless Scheme of Assessment, enabling assessees to contact officials for favourable settlement in exchange for pecuniary benefits. The CBI registered an FIR after a departmental complaint and phone analysis, conducted searches at multiple locations, recovered digital and payment evidence, and named an IRS officer, inspectors, and several CAs for criminal conspiracy and unauthorized disclosure of protected tax data.