Prominent businessman Mohandas Pai has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to intervene against what he termed “tax terrorism”, following the suicide of Confident Group chairman CJ Roy.
In a post on X, tagging Modi and Sitharaman, Pai wrote, “Too many people are terrified by tax officials - an assault on citizens’ rights. No way to govern our country.”
Calling such raids “tax terrorism”, Pai referred to the death of V G Siddhartha, founder of Cafe Coffee Day.
“We lost Siddhartha, founder of Coffee Day, to reported tax terrorism,” he wrote.
Pai also appealed for a “full, open, transparent inquiry” into the matter. He urged Modi to “protect taxpayers” from such “attacks and assaults on citizens’ rights”.
“The whole raid process is very brutal. Our FM has been giving such officials more and more powers, but where is the protection of citizens? Are officials punished for a wrong raid?” he questioned.
Stating that Rs 72 lakh crore had been collected through direct taxes over the past three years, Pai asked how much had been collected through such raids.
“How much is stuck in litigation, overruled by courts?” he asked.
He further urged the central government to release full data, again requesting it to “protect taxpayers”.
Pai’s remarks came against the backdrop of the Union Budget presented by Sitharaman on Sunday.
Pai was reacting to the death of CJ Roy, chairman of Confident Group, who shot himself dead following a marathon grilling by Income Tax department officials on Friday.
The real estate tycoon took the extreme step at the consulate office located on the first floor of the Confident Pentagon building on Langford Road in Bengaluru. Tax officials were still conducting an investigation at the Confident Group office located in the same building.
Family members alleged that “pressure” from the IT department drove Roy, to end his life.
“When they (IT officials) were asking him a lot of questions, he is said to have asked for five minutes of time, gone inside, and did this. So we will do a high-level investigation and bring out the truth,” Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said.