Indore: DG GST grills Neema in suspected central excise evasion

Indore: Sleuths of directorate general (DG) GST intelligence succeeded in cornering a close aide of top local and state BJP leaders, Hemant Neema in a suspected case of GST (central excise) evasion on Friday.

The team from Pune carried out search action at the residential premise of Neema located at Kesar Bagh Road on early hours of Friday and unearthed three unregistered factories owned by his wife and two other family members, which were being operated from his residential premises. A large quantity of documents was also seized and officials believe a hefty amount of evasion of GST (central excise) is likely to tumble out.

Hemant Neema is a known social activist and financer who reportedly has very good terms with high ranking BJP leaders. The search action ended in evening at around 5 pm. A top ranking official of the investigation wing informed that this was a consequential search action conduced following a similar action carried out in Miraj Town of Sangli district of Maharashtra in February, 2017. A tax evasion to the tune of Rs 67 crore was traced during the last year’s raid and four people were also arrested in the incident.

Since then, the Intelligence wing had been keeping an eye on various suppliers and packaging material manufacturing units owned by Neema was one of them, he said. The officers found three factories namely- Pack-O-Pack, PG Holographic and Panna Flex Pack, which were being operated without registration. While, proprietor of Pack-O-Pack was wife of Hemant, Babita Neema, proprietor of PG Holographic was Neema’s nephew Rajkumar Neema. Another close relative Subhahchandra Neema was the proprietor of Panna Flex Pack, sources said.

Sources further informed that as per preliminary estimation turnover of Pac-O-Pack of last three years was registered as Rs 15 crore, despite Neema’s claim these factories were Small Scale Industries (SSI). All the three units are engaged in manufacturing of packing materials including laminates and foils. The turnover of other two units was reportedly lesser than Pack-0-Pack.

At the end of the action the officers seized a large quantity of documents and brought Vicky Wadhwani, an accountant of all the three units and Piyush Neema, son of Hemant Neema for recording their statements. The team which conducted the search action was led by deputy director Vishali Patnge with team members being investigation officers Sunil Yadav, SR Baba, DB More and DK Dubey. Local officers of DG GST investigation wing also supported the action.