Kolkata Police arrests fake chartered accountant Govind Agarwal
The Kolkata Police on Sunday (November 22) arrested Govind Agarwal in a case related to setting up hundreds of shell companies to launder the alleged "ill-gotten" wealth of multiple senior revenue officials (both current and retired), based on long-running investigations against Agarwal by multiple central agencies. A city court on Sunday remanded Govind Agarwal in judicial custody till November 24 and directed that he be given medical help.
FollowThe Kolkata Police on Sunday (November 22) arrested dubious accountant Govind Agarwal in connection with a 2017 Hare Street police station FIR which implicated him and an IRS officer for cheating and corruption.
A city court on Sunday remanded Govind Agarwal in judicial custody till November 24 and directed that he be given medical help.
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Interestingly, Agarwal had been accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Rose Valley Chit Fund case and by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case related to controversial IRS officer Neeraj Singh.
Significantly, the Kolkata Police have arrested Agarwal in the 2017 case where Singh has also been named as an accused. Based on seizures from raids at premises used by Agarwal in Kolkata, the police had recovered hordes of sensitive and confidential documents belonging to the Income Tax Department, CBI, Financial Intelligence Unit, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and others, leading to questions of how a low-profile accounts manager had access to such documents.
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Govind Agarwal, who was arrested early Sunday morning from his south Calcutta home, is not a certified chartered accountant, police sources said. But in the circles he moved around, Agarwal is “rumoured” to be a chartered accountant, they added.
As the Kolkata Police went about unearthing one of the biggest money-laundering scandals involving top central government officials, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Shankar in a series of curious tweets said, "Alarmingly worrisome inputs from CA fraternity-politically inspired operation overzealousy afoot @KolkataPolice headed #DD targets CAs-strategy-fishing for material to handicap team members that raided mafia #coal #cattle."
This tweet comes at a time when Kolkata Police is yet to make public Agarwal's connections with senior IT officials.
However, while these remarks from the Governor ascribing political motives to Kolkata Police's probe have surprised many, what is interesting is that the investigation involving these senior revenue officials, Agarwal, Neeraj Singh and others, is to a large extent, being conducted by central probe agencies who later shared the evidence with local police here, following which the probe was carried ahead by the Kolkata Police.
