The Hindu reported that former steel minister Mr Virbhadra Singh, who is already being linked by the Opposition BJP to alleged payoffs from the Ispat Industries, now faces additional questions about unaccounted cash entries emerging from his Income Tax returns and affidavit of assets filed for nomination to the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections in 2012.
It now turns out that Mr Singh, who admits to one Mr Anand Chauhan managing his money in a legal document, filed revised IT Returns in 2012 for the assessment years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, soon after Mr Chauhan’s accounts came under the scrutiny of the Shimla tax authorities in 2011.
Mr Singh entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Mr. Chauhan on June 15th 2008 that the latter would manage his apple orchards and invest the proceeds/income from the sale of apples in government securities, Mutual Funds, in schemes of LIC or to invest the money in the products of Scheduled Banks by ensuring safe and better returns.
Between April 24, 2008 and March 31, 2010, Mr. Chauhan deposited roughly INR 5 crore in cash in his Punjab National Bank account in Shimla. He also made corresponding deposits by cheque for LIC premiums totalling roughly INR 5 crore in favour of the former Steel Minister, his wife Pratibha Singh and two children, Aparajita Kumari and Vikramaditya Singh.
Coincidentally, Mr Singh’s revised I-T returns show an increase in agricultural income to the tune of INR 6.57 crore. While the original IT returns document the net agricultural income at INR 7,34,000, INR 15,00,000 and Rs. 25,00,000 for the assessment years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively, the revised IT returns, all filed on March 2nd 2012, show staggering, corresponding escalations to INR 2,21,35,000 (a 30 fold increase), INR 2,80,92,500 (an 18 fold increase) and INR 1,55,00,000 (a 6 fold increase).
Whether this increase in agricultural income came from the late realisation of sale proceeds from Mr. Singh’s apple harvest or from some other source is not known. Nor is it clear whether these proceeds were the source of the cash deposits made in Mr Chauhan’s accounts that the IT office is scrutinizing.
The Hindu had reported on October 13 that the seizure of a document by the IT Department during a December 1st 2010 raid on Ispat Industries’ Delhi offices recorded off book cash payments to a ‘VBS’ of INR 50,00,000 on 28/10/2009, INR 50,00,000 on 23/12/2009, INR 27,74,535 on 21/4/2010, and INR 1,00,00,000 on 24/8/2010, along with a payment of INR 15 lakh to ‘Min of Steel APS’ recorded for September 11th 2008. The cash payments add up to a little less than INR 2.5 crore.
Source - The Hindu
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