Mumbai businessman struck by rod on way to GST office, is brain dead

MUMBAI: A 35-year-old Juhu businessman is brain dead in a central Mumbai hospital after an iron rod fell on him while he was entering a building in Parel on Thursday afternoon. The victim, Rahul Saraf, had gone to the Goods & Service Tax (GST) office located in Lotus InfoCentre when the incident occurred. His family is distraught and has requested Global Hospital doctors to "continue with the treatment", said the Bhoiwada police.
Incidentally, Saraf, director of Maxgrow Overseas Ltd, was arrested, along with two others, in a Rs 687-crore case involving fake claims of credit under GST in December 2018. He was out on bail. As GST officials were continuing with the probe, he had been summoned to the Parel office on Thursday. A senior official told TOI that Saraf, accompanied by his chartered accountant and two employees, had arrived at the office around 2.15pm on Thursday. "They were initially summoned on Tuesday, but on their request it was kept on Thursday," the official said. "It (the accident) is very unfortunate." The police have registered an offence of negligence against the management and contractor of Lotus InfoCentre.
In GST, input tax credit is paid by businessmen during the purchase and can be used to offset the tax liability when they make a sale. Saraf was accused of claiming Rs 61 core of input tax credit by showing an inflated turnover of Rs 1,100 crore, though there was no physical movement of goods. Officials had alleged these were only paper transactions. Saraf had allegedly floated 15 companies and showed transanctions and also claimed bank loans on the basis of inflated turnover.