New Delhi, April 27: The income tax (I-T) department has established that an investment of Rs 1.50 crore was made in the firm of former Chief Justice of India YK Sabharwal’s sons. The income tax department has passed on information to its assessing officer “for follow up action”.
An RTI application filed by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal shows that out of four allegations of corruption leveled against the former CJI, action has been taken on two while there was no case against him in the remaining four cases. The RTI application has also exposed the lack of transparency in the CBI as the agency refused to part with documents which were furnished by CVC.
In an RTI petition filed on March 3, Agrawal had sought details on cases at CBI against Justice Sabharwal in a complaint lodged by lawyer Prashant Bhushan against him dated November 26, 2007. The case was forwarded by CVC to CBI.
According to one of the allegations, in lieu of the sealing orders passed by him, Justice Sabharwal obtained gratification in the form of share subscription of Rs 1.15 crore from Kabul Chawla and Anjali Chawla of BTBP real estate developers in his son’s company Pawan Impex.
Further, it was alleged that the “construction of the IT Park of his son’s company Pawan Impex by BTBP Share Capital grew from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 crore within a small time after sealing orders were passed” by Justice Sabharwal.
According to the CBI, the matter was referred to DG (Investigation), I-T department vide CBI letter dated June 10, 2008 “for such action as deemed fit”. As per the findings of the income tax department, investment of Rs 1.5 crore by Kabul Chawla and Anjali Chawla in Pawan Impex was also established.
The department further found that the funds for investment by Justice Sabharwal’s sons Pawan and Chetan Sabharwal were arranged by withdrawal from bank. DG (Investigation) Income Tax has passed on information to its assessing officer for further follow up action.
In another case, it was alleged that in lieu of orders favouring expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, the latter influenced the allotment of a residential plot to Justice Sabharwal’s daughter-in-law at throwaway prices. The CBI decided the matter was to be looked into during investigation of RC 01 in CBI which was registered on the orders of Allahabad High Court for investigating the alleged fraudulent allotment of large number of residential plots by the UP Government.
According to the CBI, on completion of investigation of RC 01 (A)/08/ACU-IX, New Delhi, a chargesheet under section 201 and 420 read with 477A of IPC and section 65 of Income Tax Act, 2000 has been filed in the court of Special Judge for CBI cases, Ghaziabad on March 31, 2010.
–Agencies–