Ramalingam probe delayed

Thanks to the enquiry into the Nokia tax evasion case, T M Ramalingam, who reportedly holds international bills of exchange for US Treasury bonds worth $5 billion, was asked not to appear before the I-T department yesterday.

A senior I-T official said, “We asked him not to come because, more or less, it is a frivolous case. There is nothing much in it, except for about Rs 1.8 crore of fixed deposits. We have other important work in the Nokia case. We will call him later — after about a week and take a statement,” said the official.

Meanwhile, Ramalingam said he would take legal action against the I-T department, which said the bills of exchange and the documents he held weren’t valid. On Wednesday, Barclays Bank had told the I-T department the bills were invalid.

Earlier, the department had said according to Ramalingam, he had secured the US treasury bonds in exchange for gold bonds. It added it was conducting an extensive investigation into the matter and had also approached the US government on the issue. The department also said Ramalingam hadn’t filed I-T returns in the last four years.