Ravinder Singh Chauhan, a 30-year-old cook at a dhaba in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind district, has filed a police complaint after he received a Rs 46 crore income tax notice.
“I work at a dhaba. My account doesn’t see even Rs 3 lakh in transactions throughout the year,” Chauhan said.
“We got the complaint and are deciding on the next course of action,” said a senior officer.
His lawyer, advocate Pradhuman Singh Bhadoriya, claimed that in November 2019, when Chauhan was working as a mess helper at a toll plaza on Gwalior bypass, his supervisor told him to give his bank details and Aadhaar card details to help with his provident fund.
“I had to leave school after sixth grade because of our family’s financial condition,” Chauhan said on why he shared his bank details.
Eight months passed without any PF money or incentives, and he was unable to close the bank account, Chauhan claimed. His employment ended in 2023 when the toll plaza contract expired, forcing him to seek work in Pune.
The first income tax notice arrived at Chauhan’s home on April 9, 2025, written in English. Neither he nor his wife could understand it, so they ignored it. When a second notice came on July 25, Chauhan decided to look into it.
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“I came back from Pune to find out what it was about,” he said.
The Income Tax department’s Gwalior branch, in its notice, stated that ” income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment to the extent of Rs 46,18,32,916 for the F.Y 2020-21 relevant to the A.Y: 2021-22. Therefore, the case of the assessee is found to be a fit case for issuance of notice”.
Working with his lawyer for over a month, Chauhan said he understood what appears to have allegedly transpired: “The account opened seven years ago had been continuously used for massive financial transactions,” he claimed.
“Even after I asked for it to be closed, someone continued using it,” he claimed. “I’ve filed a complaint at the police station, but they’re telling me the crime happened in Delhi, so I should file one there.”
