A city court on Monday sent one of the directors of a media house to Tihar Jail for four years for not filing his income tax returns for seven years as the magistrate termed it as an economic offence falling under the ambit of tax evasion and black money.
Apart from the jail term, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Devendra Kumar Sharma also imposed a fine of Rs13 lakh on convict Probodh Kumar Tiwari,
director of Mahuaa Media, and took him into custody to serve the sentence.
“Considering the facts and circumstance of the case that despite service of several notices for filing of tax returns for total seven assessment years, present scenario of economic offences including tax evasion and black money and in view of the law laid down...,” the court said while sentencing the convict.
The court referred to 47th report of the law Commission of India on the trial and punishment of social and economic offence, which dealt with the aspects of the offence involving tax evasion and termed it as white collar crime.
“It was observed that these offences, affecting as they do the health and wealth of the entire community, require to be put down with a heavy hand at a time when the country has embarked upon a gigantic process of social and economic planning,” the court said.
“It is further stated that in the cases like involving the tax evasion, the victim is generally the state and mode of operation of the offender is fraud not force and the act of committing such crime is deliberate and wilful,” it said.
While Tiwari was sentenced to undergo four years simple imprisonment with fine of Rs2 lakh each in six complaint cases, he was jailed for two years and a fine of Rs1 lakh in one complaint.
Advocate Brijesh Garg, standing counsel for Income Tax Department, said the convict has wilfully failed to file returns of income for assessment years 200506 to 201112 in time despite several notices under provisions of the Income Tax Act.
Tiwari, who was already lodged in jail under judicial custody in some other case, sought a lenient view saying he was a senior citizen and has been suffering from various ailments, including depression and ulcerative colitis.
His counsel submitted the convict’s company Mahuaa Media is already facing several winding up proceedings before the Delhi High Court and various banks have also initiated recovery proceedings against the firm due to financial crunch which has worsened his life.
According to the complaint of Income Tax Department’s Deputy Commissioner, in March 2011, a search was carried out by the Income Tax Department in the group companies, of which Tiwari was one of the directors, and certain documents were seized from his premises.
A notice was issued asking him to file his returns of income within 20 days but he failed to do so after which many notices were issued to him but he had not filed the returns within time and the complaints were lodged against him.
During the trial, the accused claimed that he was in judicial custody in some other case and CBI was calling him on a day-to-day basis due to which he could not devote time to prepare the return.
The court, however, said he has not disclosed the date or period during he remained in judicial custody.