The Madras High Court on Thursday granted time till December 5 for the Income Tax department to file its counter affidavit to a writ petition preferred by self-styled godman ‘Kalki’ Bhagavan’s daughter-in-law Preetha Krishna against a ‘look out circular’ issued by the department preventing her from flying abroad without a I-T clearance certificate.
Justice K. Ravichandrabaabu acceded to a request made by A.P. Srinivas, senior standing counsel for I-T department, for grant of two weeks time to submit a detailed reply.
It was also brought to the notice of the judge that the department had already passed an exhaustive order on November 11 refusing permission for her to travel to the U.S. and Ukraine.
The order passed by K. Mahadevan, Assistant Director of Income Tax (Investigations), Chennai, stated that a search and seizure operation was conducted at the residences, trusts as well as companies run by ‘Kalki’ alias Vijay Kumar, his wife Amma Bhagavan alias Padmavati Vijay Kumar, son N.K.V. Krishna and the latter’s wife Ms. Krishna. The operation was carried out in 38 different premises in Chennai, Chitoor, Hyderabad and Bengaluru and one of them was Ms. Krishna’s residence on East Coast Road here from where unaccounted cash of ₹23.87 crore and foreign currency to the tune of $1.25 million (valued approximately to be ₹9 crore) had been seized by the I-T sleuths.
Further, 5,678 grams of gold jewellery worth ₹1.68 crore and 433.47 carats of diamonds worth ₹1.7 crore were also found in her residence and placed under prohibitory orders.
During the course of search, it was found that the unaccounted cash had been generated by companies and trusts in which the petitioner was either a shareholder or trustee.
Finding that trusts/companies run by ‘Kalki’ and his son were also involved in generating unaccounted cash which totally worked out to ₹409 crore, the Assistant Director said that ₹131 crore had been transferred through hawala channels to invest in foreign entities in which the petitioner and her husband were holding beneficial interests. The officer claimed that two of her employees Sita Ramachandra Raju and Badri Narayana, looking after the foreign entities, had accepted the hawala transfers to Dubai and explained the modus operandi employed by the petitioner and her husband to channel unaccounted cash receipts to the United Arab Emirates as investments in various projects.
Mr. Mahadevan also accused Ms. Krishna and her husband of having invested in a number of companies in Dubai, Europe and the U.S. through their Singaporean entity White Lotus Capital Investment Holding which was a subsidiary of their Indian company Global Arkitekts Private Limited, and yet not disclosed any beneficial interest in the I-T returns.
Though a notice under Section 10(1) of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act of 2015 was issued to the petitioner in that regard, she had not responded to it as on November 11, the official added.
He also accused the couple of concealing credits to the tune of ₹115 crore in a particular bank account.
Alleging that the couple were engaged in buying huge tracts of land in the names of their employees on payment of cash over and above the registered value of the properties, the Assistant Director said, they had floated 64 companies and deposited their unaccounted cash into the business under the garb of unsecured loan and share application money.
The November 11 order also stated that a person named Badri Narayana was operating two lockers in a private vault on behalf of the present writ petitioner and gold jewellery worth ₹3.7 crore was recovered from those lockers in two suitcases. It asked her to provide explanation and evidences for the sources through which the jewels were purchased.
The long list of charges also included the allegation of conducting ‘Wellness’ programmes for foreigners in India, diverting the course fee payments to bank accounts in the U.S. and other countries and later utilising that money for investments in companies floated by them without paying any tax for the programmes conducted here.
