Bengaluru man with Rs 5.4 cr tax dues lands in jail

The Income Tax department on Wednesday arrested a prominent tax defaulter for allegedly not paying Rs 5.4 crore tax dues.

"The defaulter, who contested in the Assembly elections twice and once in the Parliament polls, has not paid Rs 5.4 crore tax dues or filed returns of income as per time allowed under the Income Tax Act, 1961," the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Karnataka, said in a statement here.

The IT Department, however, did not name the tax defaulter or where or when he contested the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

"A search and seizure operation were conducted in the case of the defaulter, who admitted the income on the basis of evidence unearthed during the raid," said the statement.

The department said that even after it served him notice and initiated recovery proceedings, the defaulter did not pay taxes even on the income he admitted in the returns filed after the search and seizure exercise.

When the defaulter did not respond to the show cause notice, a search warrant was served on him through the police and he was arrested and produced before the tax recovery officer.

He was sent to the Bengaluru central jail after a medical check-up, the statement said.

The department had arrested and jailed a businessman for defaulting on Rs 7.35 crore tax dues on February 16 and another businessman on February 12 for defaulting on Rs 11.94 crore tax dues.

--IANS

fb/vd