Rs 13,860 crore declaration: Interrogated for hours, Mahesh Shah taken home in police uniform

Mahesh Shah habitual bragger, ‘shows off’ wealth through forgery: I-T official

4 min readAhmedabadDec 5, 2016 03:10 AM IST First published on: Dec 5, 2016 at 03:03 AM IST

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Mahesh Shah was taken to Sarkhej police station, from where I-T officials took him away. Javed Raja

Ahmedabad-based real estate dealer Mahesh Champaklal Shah, who had voluntarily declared Rs 13,860 crore under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), was interrogated for several hours on Saturday night. After the interrogation, he was taken home, dressed in a police uniform, to conceal his identity for security reasons.

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Shah, who was interrogated in the presence of a doctor and police personnel by five to six Income Tax officials, revealed the names of eight realtors of Ahmedabad and Mumbai with whom he has worked. Officials said the process of recording his statement is likely to continue on Monday. City police also deployed two guards outside his house, apprehending security threat.

Incidentally, Shah has two cases of cheque bounce in Ahmedabad and Rajkot. Another case of alleged forgery was probed by the CBI after a person, identified as Ramesh Pandey, had lodged a case against him.

“Prima facie, what has emerged is that he is someone who loves to show off with wealth through forged papers such as notorised affidavits on land deals to the tune of hundreds of crores. He would tell his potential customers how he settles deals, mostly in real estate, worth crores. However, we have not come across any evidence suggesting that he actually was involved in such big dealings,” a top Income Tax official said.

The officer added, “After the searches we conducted at his residence and office premises in Ahmedabad and other places on November 29 and November 30, we seized various documents. To our surprise, the documents revealed that he had undisclosed income worth more than Rs 12,000 crore. We don’t know his so-called income in 2012-2014, but the documents suggest that in 2014-15, he had Rs 4000 crore.”

“We interrogated him for nearly six hours from 10:30 till 3:30 on Saturday night, but just like his interview on the local channel, he kept on repeating that he will give proof of his money, location with specific documents. However, he didn’t disclose a single name,” the officer added.

Shah resurfaced on Saturday, a day after his chartered accountant Tehmul Sethna went public with his declaration under IDS. He claimed on a local television channel Saturday that the money was not his. Later, he was taken to the police station and the I-T office.

Sources in the I-T department said that Shah gave at least eight names of real estate dealers, mostly from Mumbai, with whom he has worked. Sources said that Shah, 67, was a heart patient and had suffered attacks in the past. Through the interrogation, he was examined medically every hour. Shah kept repeating that his family should not be dragged in the case as they had nothing to do with it.

What surprised the Income Tax officials, sources said, was the fact that the documents seized during the raids revealed that Shah’s unidentified company had an annual return less than Rs 20 lakh. “We asked him all kinds of questions in the presence of a doctor, a woman officer and our own officers, but he revealed nothing,” officials said.

Shah was let go around 4 am after he said he was not feeling well. An officer said that he will be questioned again to ascertain the purpose of his declaration. Ahmedabad city police extended security to Shah, suspecting threats. On Sunday afternoon, Shah told the police that he wanted to go home away from media glare. “He is a heart patient and has suffered attacks multiple times. He wanted to go home quietly in police escort and that’s why we disguised him in the uniform. We don’t want to take any chance as apart from his medical condition, there is also a threat to his life,” said joint commissioner of police Piyush Patel.

Ahmedabad Police Commissioner A K Singh said that the police uniform for Shah was well-intended, but it could have been avoided. He said that the police were helping the I-T office, which sought help on Saturday, in his interrogation. Singh said that Shah was not in police custody. The police department is only assisting the I-T department which has been interrogating Shah.