IT dept chargesheets Chidambaram family
Income Tax department Friday filed four charge sheets against former Union minister P Chidambaram’s wife Nalini, son Karti and daughterin-law Srinidhi under the Black Money Act for allegedly not disclosing their foreign assets.
The charge sheets or prosecution complaints have been filed before a special court in Chennai under Section 50 of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, officials said.
Nalini, Karti and Srinidhi have been charged for allegedly not disclosing, either partly or fully, immovable assets like the one at Cambridge in the UK worth ~5.37 crore, property worth ~80 lakh in the same country and asset worth Rs 3.28 crore in the US, they said.
The charge sheets claimed that the Chidambarams and the firm co-owned by Karti — Chess Global Advisory — “did not disclose” these investments to the tax authority in violation of the black money law. The law was first brought in 2015 to prosecute those Indians who have secretly stashed illicit wealth abroad.
The department had recently issued notices to Karti and his family members in the case which he had challenged before the Madras high court.
Karti had refused to join the probe stating that he had already submitted the details of the asset and related transactions undertaken last year to another tax authority, and that “parallel proceedings” cannot take place against an individual under the same law. The writ petition was later quashed by the high court.
Officials said the charge sheet has been filed as the investigation of the case had reached its “logical conclusion”.
The new law deals with cases of overseas illegal assets, which till recently were probed under the Income Tax Act, 1961. The new legislation has provisions for a steep 120% tax and penalty on undisclosed foreign assets and income, besides carrying a jail term of up to 10 years.
NEWDELHI:The THE CHARGE SHEET WAS FILED AGAINST HIS WIFE, SON, AND DAUGHTERINLAW UNDER THE BLACK MONEY ACT FOR ‘NOT DISCLOSING THEIR FOREIGN ASSETS’