In a major development, the Director General of Income Taxes (DGIT) has in a fresh affidavit filed before the Bombay High Court has disclosed the names of companies linked to four middlemen and their close associates engaged in liaising activities in close coordination with various Ministries of Maharashtra government in an alleged corruption case involving the allotments of land belonging to the state government.
In its fresh say filed before Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar, the Director General of Income Taxes (DGIT) disclosed the names of four companies and their sub-group from belonging to middlemen involved in an alleged corruption in the allotment of allotments of land belonging to the Maharashtra government.
In a fresh affidavit before the HC bench in a PIL filed by Advocate Pravin Wategaonkar, the DGIT made the disclosure after conducting raids on the companies involved under section 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, a revelation provides evidence to the alleged compliance of middlemen involved in the case, the names of whom were disclosed earlier by the department.
Following disclosure made in an affidavit filed before it on October 19, the HC bench took into consideration the new information provided by the DGIT and allowed the department to file an additional affidavit before it and scheduled the next hearing of the case for November 26, 2024.
It may be recalled that in her say filed before the HC bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Arif S Doctor in August 2023 in a case involving irregularities in the government land allotment, Ms Teresa Joseph, Deputy Director of Income Tax (Investigation) Unit 32 (2) had confirmed that “the relatives/ family members/ references of the bureaucrats in whose name the properties were purchased” were under investigation.
Following raids conducted on 25 residential, 15 office premises and some suites in a five-star hotel in south Mumbai between September and November 2021, the IT officials had detected total transactions to the tune of Rs 1,050 crore.
The syndicate – comprising businessmen, middlemen, their associates and also those public offices had used code names in their records and in one case, they had backdated records by 10 years. Huge cash exchanges were involved in the overall transactions. The investigations had revealed that businessmen and middlemen had permanently rented out suites in a five-star hotel in south Mumbai for meeting their clients and striking nefarious deals.
In her affidavit, Ms Teresa Joseph had identified the businessmen/middlemen as Prashant Prakash Nilawar, Jayant Hiralal Shah, Girish Narayan Pawar and Kirti Vishwanath Kedia who along with their close relatives and others were allegedly engaged in liaising activities in close coordination with various Ministries of Maharashtra government in an alleged corruption case involving the allotment of land belonging to the state government.
The affidavit had brought out the offence of bribery of public servants by middlemen in allotment of land belonging to Maharashtra . undertaking to industrialists; extension of contracts etc.
In his PIL, Wategaonkar has sought an investigation by the SIT of Director General (ACB) & Jt. Director (ED) into the alleged corruption in the questionable government land deals.
