A top official of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) department in Ahmedabad is in hot water for allegedly buying 620 acres of land and building an unauthorised resort, in Maharashtra’s Mahabaleshwar. 

Nandurbar-native Chandrakant Valvi, the Central GST Principal Commissioner in Ahmedabad, reportedly purchased 620 acres of land in the names of his family and a relative at Zadani village in the Kandati Valley at Mahabaleshwar in Satara district.

According to activist and Satara-based information department officer Sushant More, Valvi has also allegedly built an unauthorised resort on 40 acres, for which the previous owners have not been paid.

“I was fed false information that the land was being purchased by the government. It is necessary to investigate how this land was purchased,” More added. 

Practised hand? 

This is not Valvi’s first brush with accusations of large-scale corruption. His tenures in Bhavnagar and Gandhinagar coincided with several scandals involving bogus billing and illegal input tax credit. Similarly, he is also believed to have caused huge losses to the government in collusion with the ceramic industries of Kalol, Mehsana and Himmatnagar.

Satara District Collector Jitendra Dudi has now ordered an investigation based on More’s complaint, in which the activist has demanded the demolition of the resort. More has also threatened to fast in front of the district administration office if no action is taken on the issue by June 10. 

Local police officials in Mahabaleshwar have confirmed to Gujarat Samachar that no police complaint has been lodged yet.

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