Sena (UBT) misusing ID, password for ITR, alleges Shinde Sena

The Shiv Sena has filed a complaint with the police, accusing rival group Shiv Sena (UBT) of using their login ID and password for filing income tax returns. The complaint alleges that UBT faction leaders impersonated themselves as the Shiv Sena leader and deliberately misused the login details.

Mumbai: The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Tuesday filed a complaint with the police alleging that the rival Shiv Sena (UBT) was using the Shiv Sena login id and password for filing tax deducted at source (TDS) income tax returns (ITR). Sources said the complaint had been forwarded to economic offences wing for conducting necessary inquiries.

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A delegation led by Kiran Pawaskar, deputy leader, OSD to CM Ashish Kulkarni, Shiv Sena Secretary Sanjay More and treasurer Balaji Kinikar met police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar on Tuesday evening to formally lodge the complaint. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Pawaskar said, “We have the official party and symbol. But for income tax returns, we can’t use the login ID and password as someone is misusing it. We did not want money, so we gave the party funds to the UBT group. We wish to know why they are using our login ID and password. This is cheating.”

In the complaint submitted to the police, the Shinde-led Sena alleged that UBT faction leaders and officer-bearers “impersonified themselves to be the party leader of Shiv Sena political party (i.e., the Shinde-led Shiv Sena) and thereby filed TDS returns for the preceding quarter (July to September 2023).” They further alleged that leaders from the Uddhav Thackeray faction as well as their chartered accountants knew that he was not the leader of the political party, yet they misused the party’s login ID and password “intentionally and deliberately”.

The complaint stated that the Shinde-led Shiv Sena had applied to authorities for issuance of duplicate PAN Number and subsequently, after its issuance, updated the address and the signing authorities of the Shiv Sena political party. The complaint also mentioned that letters were sent to the joint commissioner of income tax and the additional commissioner of income tax (TDS-2 Mumbai) on December 15, 2023, and December 27, 2023, intimating them that the Uddhav Thackeray faction and their chartered accountants had not provided them financial documents and login IDs and passwords for filing TDS and ITR.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that he didn’t know much about the issue.