KOZHIKODE: After Thomas Chandy, another businessman-turned politician has courted trouble. The Income Tax (I-T) department has launched an inquiry into Nilambur MLA P V Anwar’s income and assets worth crores of rupees based on a complaint alleging he has not paid tax for the past 10 years.
In the complaint, Murugesh Narendran and his wife Jaya said they had accessed various documents pertaining to the LDF-backed MLA through Right To Information Act.
The latest controversy puts Anwar under added pressure as he has been facing allegations of setting up a water theme park violating norms at Kakkadampoyil in Kozhikode district.
“He had shown nil returns for the last several years and for the financial year 2014-15, he had shown an income of Rs 4.6 lakh as per income tax return,” the complainants said, adding they were ready to submit all documents to the authorities.
When Express contacted Murugesh, he alleged he was a victim of Anwar’s highhandedness after he took over a portion of his family property, which was caught in a legal dispute in a civil court. I-T officers said the department had a process to look into a complaint whenever they receive one. “We conduct an inquiry when we get a complaint. We probe further after validating whether the allegations raised in a complaint have any base,” said a senior IT officer.
Anwar was not available for comment despite repeated attempts while one of his personal assistants said the MLA was not interested in giving his version about the allegations levelled against him by the same set of people for the past one year.