I-T case: Court asks Moin Qureshi's wife to appear as accused

Controversial businessman Moin Akhtar Qureshi's Pakistani-origin wife was today directed by a Delhi court to appear before it in a case of allegedly giving false information to the Income Tax (I-T) department about her foreign bank accounts.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pritam Singh asked Nasreen Moin Qureshi to appear before the court on January 6, 2016 while allowing her plea seeking exemption from personal appearance for today only.
In pursuance of the summons issued to her earlier, her counsel appeared before the court and moved an exemption plea.
The court had earlier summoned her as an accused in the case after taking cognisance of the complaint filed by the I-T department under the I-T Act and the IPC.

It was alleged in the complaint that a search was carried out by I-T Department in the case of Nasreen and other connected cases of AMQ Group on February 15 last year.
In her preliminary statement, Nasreen stated on oath that she was having only one bank account of HSBC and she denied owning any assets in any foreign country, it has said.

"Evidence clearly showed that Nasreen Moin Qureshi has not disclosed deposits in JP Morgan Chase Bank in USA for income tax and such deposits represent her undisclosed income, not offered to taxation in returns of income filed by her thereby causing huge loss to revenue," the I-T department said.

It alleged that the meat exporter's wife had made false statement in verification in her returns of income filed for the relevant period.
In her statement to the I-T department in April last year, Nasreen said that before her marriage, her father, who was a native of Pakistan, would have opened her bank account in Pakistan and other countries but no account was opened abroad after her marriage.
The complaint, however, has said Nasreen's claim that foreign bank account was opened by her father was found to be false and investigation has confirmed that she maintained account with the bank in the US.

It also alleged that Nasreen had signed the documents in April, 2010 to open two accounts in the US' bank and total deposit in them were over USD 3,02,599.
The complaint has said she used debit cards for expenses or withdrawal from the foreign account and she had withdrawn USD 1,79,532.