THE INCOME-TAX Department has alleged that Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, under-reported his income from benami landholdings in Rajasthan by Rs 106 crore over 11 years. It has proposed to add this amount to his income during assessment years 2010-11 to 2020-21, The Indian Express has learned. 🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️ The I-T Department has also proposed to add roughly Rs 9 crore to the income of Vadra’s seven companies – M/S Artex, Skylight Hospitality, Skylight Realty, Bluebreeze Trading, Lambodar Arts, North India IT Parks and Real Earth — spread over assessment years 2010-11 to 2015-16. The under-reporting of income is in connection with the department’s investigation against Vadra for alleged tax evasion in land deals in Rajasthan covered under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act. The department had in December 2021 also apprised the Enforcement Directorate of its finding on the under-reporting of Vadra’s income (Rs 106 crore) and his seven companies (Rs 9 crore approximately). Vadra's lawyer Suman Khaitan did not respond to a set of questions by email. When contacted, Vadra told The Indian Express, "Same reasons as last many years.. the timing seems apt, to bring out my name. A clear malicious Political witch-hunt!! My legal team as you've addressed them already. can answer clearly.” According to sources, Vadra and his companies will have the opportunity to contest the I-T department's finding on the alleged under-reporting of income. Under Section 270A of the IT Act 1961, income tax evasion can attract a penalty of 50 per cent of the tax payable for under-reporting of income. If under-reporting is on account of mis-reporting, the penalty will be 200 per cent of the tax payable. In 2020, as first reported by The Indian Express, the I-T department had searched multiple premises in possession of former Congress MLA Lalit Nagar and his brother Mahesh Nagar, a former aide of Vadra and, eventually, claimed to have found evidence of a money trail that traced sizeable land transactions in Rajasthan by Nagar’s associates back to Vadra and his companies. Earlier, properties belonging to the Nagar brothers were searched by the Enforcement Directorate and the I-T Department in April 2017 and October 2019, respectively. It is alleged by the I-T department that Vadra purchased land in Bikaner and Jodhpur using benami names with the help of Mahesh Nagar in anticipation of the National Solar Mission, tax incentives offered by the state government and the subsequent appreciation in land value. The persons in whose names land was purchased, the department has claimed, were either not aware of the transactions or denied it completely. Further, the proceeds of the sale have allegedly either reached Vadra or Mahesh Nagar and hence amounted to under-reporting of income, according to the tax department. The Enforcement Directorate began probing the Bikaner land deals in 2015 and summoned Nagar for questioning. He moved court but got no reprieve and, in December 2016, was told to appear before the agency. The ED has since handed over details of the Bikaner land deals to the I-T investigation unit. In February 2019, ED said it had attached “assets worth Rs 4.62 crore of M/S Sky Light Hospitality (P) Ltd (now LLP) and others in the Kolayat (Bikaner) land scam case”. Almost half of the Rs 106 crore income that the department claims Vadra concealed is allegedly from just two years – Rs 20 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 28 crore in 2019-20. According to sources, about Rs 4 crore is proposed to be added to the income of M/S Artex, a small company of Vadra’s specialising in jewellery and handicraft exports, in the year 2015-16 and roughly Rs 1.5 crore to Real Earth Estates' income in the assessment years 2010-11 and 2012-13.
