IIPM Director Arindam Chaudhuri arrested for Rs 23 crore undue CENVAT claim

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Arindam Chaudhuri, Director of Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) was arrested by the CGST South Delhi Commissionerate on August 21 under Section 89 of the Finance Act, sources told CNBC-TV18.

The arrest was made over alleged undue claim of Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT) of service tax credit of about Rs 23 crore.

Chaudhuri's colleague, Gurudas Malik Thakur, director, was also arrested under the same section and sent to 14 days judicial custody.

Both were produced before duty magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari in the Patiala House Court.

Investigation is under process, and is likely to cover other properties held by Chaudhuri and his company in Delhi, other cities and overseas, the sources added.

Chaudhuri and Thakur will next be produced before the court on September 3, 2020.

This is not Chaudhuri's first brush with the law. He was arrested on March 14 -- and subsequently granted bail -- for allegedly submitting a forged medical certificate when police asked him to join an investigation last year in connection with a 2016 case, as an Indian Express report.

In 2018, an indirect tax tribunal upheld the entire service tax demand against IIPM saying there was no scope to exclude “academic courses” conducted by the institute from the levy of the tax demand which including penalty and interest could be over Rs 200 crore, sources told The Times of India. They added that Chaudhuri owns 90 percent of the closely held company while the rest is held by his wife.