I-T notices to 50 State politicians
| Date :10-Sep-2019 |
Staff Reporter :
Raipur
In a major development, Income Tax Department’s Investigation Wing has slapped notices to as many as 50 politicians as part of its probe into alleged ‘widespread and well-organised’ illegal funding to the tune of several crores unearthed during the 2018 Assembly Elections. All these politicians have been summoned by the department to explain the source of massive funding into their electioneering, which grossly mismatches with the declaration in their affidavits of income sources and assets submitted prior to contest polls from various seats across the seats.
However, a few politicians have reportedly already appeared before to clarify their stances on the funding and mismatch hitherto. “All these politicians served notices under Section 131 of Income Tax Act have been summoned by the department following an in-depth and thorough scrutiny of their election affidavits availed to them by Election Commission of India (ECI), which was found to have stark contrast about their income source and what they spent during real-time electioneering running into several lakhs and crores,” reliable sources in Income Tax Department told ‘The Hitavada’ requesting anonymity. As the cash and the hawala deals had “clear links” to the poll process, according to the sources, the notices were served and these political party candidates have been summon to explain the reason behind the mismatch, apart from furnishing actual details of funding and its sources done by them in the Assembly polls.
In 1,244 candidates had submitted their affidavits regarding all their financial, personal, family and other legal (with regards to criminal cases if registered any) details to ECI, which eventually reached to Income Tax Department for further probe, the sources said, adding further that as many as 164 candidates were found ‘crorepatis’ among all others.
If sources are to be believed, once all the summoned candidates have furnished their replies, the further probe would be widened further. “Hereafter, certain people whose role in the entire case is found dubious would be confronted with certain documents and other pieces of evidences, and their statement would be recorded,” the sources maintained. Most importantly, sources also claimed that the watchdogs have detected that huge amounts of illegal funding, sourced from government departments in the state as well as top corporate and business houses inside and outside, were alleged pumped into to execute hawala rings and also for the poll expenses of several candidates in Chhattisgarh during the pre-electioneering process held for Assembly elections in 2018.
The sources, however, refused to identify the political parties and the candidates summoned through notices, but they duly underlined that the records of collection and disbursement of cash "in the form of hand-written diaries and other paper trails would be corroborated with the statement of each candidate, their affidavits and income tax returns once again. When ‘The Hitavada’ contacted Alok Johri, Principal Director, Investigation Wing (Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh), he could not be reached on his phone for his comments into the matter. So it happened, when Joint Director (Investigation Wing) Siddhartha Meena was tried to contact over phone, but he failed to respond despite repeated attempts by this newspaper reporter.