CBDT rejigs top deck

Amid reports of alleged leak of information regarding income tax searches on liquor baron Ponty Chadha, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) reshuffled charges of its board members on Friday.

S S Rana, handling investigation, has been given income tax. Investi-gation has gone to K Madhavan Nair, handling legislation and computerisation. Poonam Kishore Saxena has been given charge of legislation and computerisation. Earlier, she had charge of audit and judicial.

Manjari Kacker will retain personnel and vigilance. Sudha Sharma and S C Jaini have been given the charge of audit and judicial, and revenue, respectively. Chairman Laxman Das will continue to hold charge of the Mumbai region.

While the finance ministry did not give any reason for the reshuffle, speculations were rife it was an aftermath of the searches on Chadha. CBDT also denied reports there had been a leak in the search case and an inquiry had been instituted into the matter.

The Income Tax department said yesterday it seized cash, deposits, jewellery and ornaments worth Rs 11.6 crore during the search operation conducted on the premises of Chadha.

During the operation on February 1, cash of Rs 2.03 crore, jewellery and ornaments worth Rs 5.18 crore, fixed deposits of Rs 4.4 crore, and a large number of documents were seized. Restraint orders on 13 bank lockers and two other premises are pending and the search is yet to be completed.

Searches were conducted on properties of Chadha in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, on charges of tax evasion. These were conducted by the newly set-up criminal investigation unit of the I-T department at Chadha’s mall in Noida, and Sainik Farms and Lajpat Nagar in Delhi.