KOLKATA: In a major setback to Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, the Calcutta High Court upheld the decision of the Income Tax department to transfer proceedings against Nath from Kolkata to New Delhi.
Justice Shekhar B Saraf, while dismissing the plea filed by Nath challenging the transfer of the proceedings, said, “The revenue interest weighs more than his inconvenience.” The proceedings were initiated against him in relation to ‘cash transactions’ worth Rs 20 crore made during the election season in April 2019.
“The petitioner is a highly-influential person with a significant presence in Delhi, including an official residence and bank account. While his inconvenience would have anyway been overshadowed by the revenue interest in the facts of this case, it would be pertinent to mention the lack of any inconvenience whatsoever,” the court said in its order dismissing Nath’s plea.
In his order, the judge said that the summons served to Nath asking him to appear before the I-T office in New Delhi and not in Kolkata, was not based only on surmises and conjectures as it was evident that his name has been taken by some of the persons on whom investigation was carried out.
“Furthermore, the statement of certain persons also indicates that there was a transfer of cash to the tune of almost Rs 20 crore from his residence at Delhi. The money trail raises suspicion. Even though the said cash has been shown in the books of the AICC, the source of the funds from MPC C is required to be looked into by the tax authorities,” the judge highlighted in his order.
The I-T department had raided several persons along with Naths’ in April 2019, in New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Kolkata. They had found materials indicating Nath’s nexus with five persons, involved in large-scale collection of illegal money. The authorities issued a notice to him in September, to which he filed a response denying the allegations.
In February 2021, the I-T officers issued summons to Nath without considering his reply. The said summons was challenged before the Calcutta HC, which quashed the same by an order passed in January 2022 observing that the authorities failed to comply with Section 127 of the IT Act, which lays down a procedure to be followed to transfer proceedings from one divisional office to the other.
The authorities issued fresh summons to Nath, which he questioned before the bench of Justice Saraf. “Unaccounted cash transactions” were clearly made out from the WhatsApp chats and accompanying documents obtained from several persons wherein the term “KN” has been referred to, the judge said. “These persons were either known to the petitioner or were his associates, who seem to be extremely close to the petitioner. Thus, it is clear that the present transfer is based on cogent material that requires further investigation by the tax authorities,” the single-judge said.