The Income Tax Department has reportedly passed assessment order on the proceedings initiated by it on VK Sasikala for the purchase of assets worth hundreds of crores of rupees using demonetised notes.
The department submitted its response to the Madras high court, which was hearing a batch of petitions filed by VK Sasikala seeking permission to cross-examine a few people including her niece J Krishnapriya and lawyer S Senthil whose statements were recorded by the department of Income Tax.
According to a report in The Hindu, Sasikala had purchased two shopping malls, a software company, a sugar mill, a resort, a paper mill and 50 windmills using demonetised currency. The charges against Sasikala for the years 2012-13 to 2016-17 were regarding the companies in which she was a shareholder and for the year 2017-18, it was regarding the purchase of assets using demonetised currency.
The counsel for the Income Tax department told the court that the assessment procedure for the years 2012-13 to 2017-18 has been completed and the order has been uploaded on the website of the Income Tax department. Recording the submissions, Justice Anitha Sumanth dismissed Sasikala’s petitions since the department has completed the assessment and hence the question of permission to cross-examine does not arise.
Incriminating evidence against Sasikala
According to officials of the Income Tax department, a search conducted in Krishnapriya’s residence in November 2017 unearthed images of loose sheets from her phone. The images had names of prominent businessmen and some figures scribbled next to them. Krishnapriya had also allegedly stated that the loose sheets were in one of the several envelopes received by Sasikala when she stayed with her during her parole period. Krishnapriya also reportedly told the officials that she had taken a picture of the sheet after Sasikala told her to destroy the contents of the envelopes and that the sheet had information about amounts paid to businessmen.
The department officials also found another loose sheet written by Senthil, which, according to his statement to the officers, had details about cash transactions for the acquisition of various assets immediately after demonetisation.
Recently, the Income Tax department attached property worth Rs 1,600 crore belonging to VK Sasikala under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act. The department had obtained details about these assets after a massive raid at Sasikala’s property in November 2017.
VK Sasikala is currently in Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara prison, serving her jail term of four years under the Disproportionate Assets case.