The CBI has booked 31 people based in Kerala, including 18 Navy personnel, for allegedly claiming income tax refunds worth over Rs 44 lakh by making false claims of various deductions which were not included in Form-16, officials said on Wednesday.

The CBI has booked personnel of Navy and police, and executives of two private companies -- an IT major and a life insurance provider -- for allegedly using services of agents to make the fake claims, they said.

The central probe agency has alleged that the agents were charging 10 per cent of the Income Tax refund as fee, they said.

The CBI action came on a complaint from the principal chief income tax commissioner of Kerala, who alleged that a total of 51 people had made the false claims.

"Out of these 51 assessees, 20 individual assessees, who had falsely claimed and received refund of income tax, repaid the refunded amount totalling Rs 24.62 lakh to the Income Tax Department, after a notice was issued to them by the IT Department, admitting that they had committed mistake in claiming the income tax refund," the FIR alleged.

The CBI has alleged that the remaining 31 people booked in the FIR have yet not returned the falsely claimed income tax refund totalling Rs 44.07 lakh to the income tax department.

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