Congress questions income tax clean chit to Sahara group

Entire case was decided in just 16 days including 4 holidays, says Randeep Surjewala

A day after Rahul Gandhi dared PM Modi to probe the Sahara-Birla papers, which show the premier had received money from the two corporates, the Congress questioned the clean chit given to the Sahara group by the income tax settlement commission recently.
 
"The whole case was decided in just 16 days which included four holidays. The PM should explain," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
 
According to him, Sahara had revised its income tax return after a raid on its offices on November 22, 2014 where they acknowledged that they had concealed income worth Rs 2017 crore. When the matter went to the ITSC the amount turned out to be Rs 1910 crore.
 
He further alleged that Sahara's filings at the Registrar of Companies from 2009-2010 to 2014-15 showed expenditure to be Rs 9 crore but when the matter reached the ITSC the figure inflated to Rs 1956.5 cr.
 
"This mean income Rs 1910 cr and expenditure Rs 1956 cr?so no tax liability?why is the government being so kind to this group in the case," said Surjewala wondering what quid pro quo took place between the tax authorities and the industrial house.
 
While Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal too levelled similar charges on Modi, Rahul used the documents to attack the PM last month saying Modi received around Rs 40 cr in cash on nine occasions.
 
The BJP has cited the Supreme Court observation which said more than the PM's name, solid proof was needed in the case. Activist Prashant Bhushan had gone to the apex court.
 
Surjewala said in 2012, the ITSC had said that the documents recovered from the industrial house were genuine and needed further probe.
 
"This means the person who took money and person who gave money?if the government orders a fair probe it will clear the PM name in these papers," he said.
 
According to the Congress, none less than Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance on April 28, 2013 collected details of 4,574 bank accounts of Sahara.
 
On May 3, 2013 Enforcement Directorate collected those details from Financial Intelligence Unit, put them all on a CD and had referred this issue for investigation.
 
"If nearly 5,000 bank accounts have to be investigated it can take 6 to 9 months but now 2-1/2 or 3 years have passed," said Surjewala, "Why has Modi Government not investigated."