Vijay Ratnakar Gutte, the director of Anupam Kher starrer The Accidental Prime Minister and son of sugar baron Ratnakar Gutte has been arrested by the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax (GST). As reported by a leading daily he is alleged to have defrauded a sum of Rs 34 crore. Gutte’s firm VRG Digital Corp Pvt Ltd has been accused of issuing fake invoices involving GST of Rs 34 crore. The invoices were issued for animation and manpower services received from Horizon Outsource Solutions Pvt Ltd, a company that has come under the radar of the government agency for GST fraud of a sum amounting to Rs 170 crore.
Vijay has been booked under Section 132 (1)(c) of the CGST Act under which ‘wrongful availment’ of input tax credit using fake bills and invoices come. Apparently, VRG Digital Corp has wrongly claimed a cash refund of Rs 28 crore from the government under Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT) credit.
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If he is proven guilty then Vijay might be fined and imprisoned for up to five years. The remand application filed in the court stated, “The accused (Gutte) had not only availed of non-existent input tax credit (ITC) but further went ahead and fraudulently claimed a refund of such ITC from the GST department on the strength of such fake/ bogus invoices to defraud state exchequer.” The agency had also reported that Gutte is not cooperating with the investigation.
Vijay has been sent to judicial custody at Arthur Jail till August 14. His arrest comes in the wake of fraud allegations against his father’s eight firms that have been under the scanner for defrauding several banks of a sum of over Rs 5,500 crore. It's been alleged that Ratnakar Gutte has floated 22 bogus companies and defrauded 26,000 farmers and several banks.
Gutte has produced three films till date - Emotional Attyachar, Time Bara Vait and Badmashiyaan. The Accidental Prime Minister is his directorial debut which is based on Sanjay Baru’s book. The film stars Anupam playing the role of Manmohan Singh and Akshaye Khanna as Singh’s media advisor, Baru and is slated for a December release.
