In order to stay one step ahead of tax defaulters, income tax officials have been emulating the bumbling detective Inspector Clouseau of Pink Panther fame.
Borrowing heavily from Clouseau's infamous bag of tricks, I-T officials admit to have donned various disguises to shadow suspected tax defaulters.
In many cases the subterfuge has worked and the Clouseau-like modus operandi succeeded in nabbing tax fraudsters and defaulters, according to a book released by the income tax department.
The department has chronicled these events and cases in its publication -- Let Us Share-- which was unveiled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the national capital on July 24.
The book reveals that income tax officials have gone beyond merely scrutinising account books. They are now taking on detective duties, conducting round-the-clock surveillance of premises and shadowing suspects in order to unearth evidence of tax evasion and fraud.
Though the I-T book does not mention names, sleuthing activities of this kind were instrumental in recently uncovering FEMA-related wrongdoing by Indian Premier League franchisees associated with suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi.
A renowned 'gutkha' king was also trapped using similar methods, the book says. The unsuspecting tax evaders led the I-T officials to private lockers containing large amounts of jewellery and cash.
The department has also become tech savvy: It has procured a mobile computer forensic platform called 'Freddy' which helps restore erased and hidden files from a computer.
Freddy was recently used to decode and recover data from computers at the Mumbai offices of Lalit Modi.
The department uses a 360-degree profiling system which contains information about a suspect's PAN card, bank accounts, credit card data, investments in financial schemes and the stock market and even details of recent air travel and purchases.
And like Inspector Clouseau, the I-T men invariably get their prey. In one unconventional case they had to use a metal detector to locate a locker key hidden by a suspect a secret pocket in his underwear.
