Twenty-nine years after plot sale, two sent to jail in I-T case

Mumbai

Twenty-nine years after two joint land owners transferred their four-acre plot in Bandra to a builder for Rs 10 lakh, a local court sentenced them to six months’ rigorous imprisonment for flouting income tax rules.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate M I Lokwani sentenced two members of the Gurav family. The Income Tax (I-T) Department had initiated criminal proceedings against six members of the family in 1993.

The magistrate court initially discharged them all. The department challenged the decision in high court which, in 1999, remanded the matter back to the lower court. The magistrate court convicted two of them, while two others were acquitted as they were minors at the time of the alleged violation. Two others had died during pendency of the trial.

The Gurav family argued Devi Prasad Gupta, who purchased the property, was responsible since they had handed over the required forms to him. The court, however, rejected their contention as untenable.

The Income Tax Act, 1961, states any transaction above Rs 5 lakh involving immovable property has to undergo clearance from the Income Tax Department. The Act is not applicable on transactions after 2002.

A A Shanker, Principal Chief Commissioner, I-T (Mumbai region) has initiated the process of taking pending cases to their logical end. One of the special public prosecutors, Amit Munde, stated they had examined a retired I-T officer as witness in the case as the prosecution complaint was filed during his tenure -Vijay V Singh.