Rs.975 Crore Tax Notice Stuns Surat Tailor

SURAT: A ₹975-crore Income Tax recovery notice has left a 62-year-old tailor from outside Gujarat stunned after his identity was allegedly misused to create bogus diamond companies and show him as their director.

Rekhraj Thada, who reportedly earns around ₹15,000 a month stitching clothes from morning to evening to support his family, claims he has never even visited Gujarat. Yet, official records allegedly show him linked to Roop Rajat Diamond Company, with transactions worth around ₹2,500 crore recorded on paper.

The startling fraud came to light after he received the Income Tax notice demanding recovery of ₹975 crore. When the family investigated the company’s registered address in Surat, they found an ordinary engineering workshop instead of a diamond business.

The property’s owner, Deepakbhai Hasmukhbhai Kletwala, said his family had lived there since 1997 and operated Shriram Engineering Workshop, repairing zari-machine and snow-globe equipment.

“The family has been living here for generations. We have never heard of any diamond company by that name,” he said.

The family later approached a chartered accountant and checked Ministry of Corporate Affairs records. The investigation allegedly revealed that Thada had also been listed as a director of Jai Baberi Diamond Private Limited in Surat.

The family suspects fraudsters misused his PAN card and other identity documents to create shell companies from around 2011. The matter now raises questions over identity verification and possible financial fraud.