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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 8: The Income Tax department has detected some “unusual” deposits and withdrawals in the bank accounts of cricket players, bookies and administrators even as it is compiling the “appraisal report” on raids conducted so far.
Highly-placed IT sources said several top cricketers and bookies were confronted with these “unusual” deposits and withdrawals from their bank accounts and for want of suitable explanation deemed some deposits as their undisclosed income.
The sources said many cricketers and bookies were being questioned over the withdrawals and deposits in their bank accounts.
Without specifying the amount, the sources said in certain cases deposits ran into lakhs and the IT sleuths were probing the end-use of the money.
Meanwhile, the sources said Income Tax authorities would complete the “status report” on the raids carried out at the official and residential premises of leading cricketers, administrators and bookies in July last, by next month.
IT sources said the report was being compiled after recording statements from all those raided during the nation-wide swoop on July 20.
The IT sources said the firms and other business establishments owned by these cricketers and administrators were being scrutinised separately as there was an apprehension that some of the accounts could have been used for converting black money into white.
Besides this, all statements of the credit cards posessed by the players and administrators were being scrutinsed by the IT officials.
They said the cricket players and administrators generally used these credit cards to pay their bills abroad.
The sources said the players, bookies and administrators would submit their reply to the IT department after the status report and the taxmen would prepare the final assessment report and ask them to pay tax at the rate of 60 per cent of their undisclosed income.
However, if any of the players or administartors still did not disclose all the income, a penalty of 100 to 300 per cent could be levied besides recommending their cases for prosecution, the sources said.
In the nation-wide swoop on July 20, IT officials raided premises of cricketers including Kapil Dev, Ajay Jadeja, Ajay Sharma, Nikhil Chopra and Manoj Prabhakar (all in Delhi), Mohammed Azharuddin (in Hyderabad and Mumbai) and Navjot Singh Siddhu (in Patiala), former International Cricket Council Chief Jagmohan Dalmiya (in Calcutta), Worldtel Chairman Mark Mascarenhas (in Bangalore) and BCCI treasurer Kishore Rungta (in Jaipur), besides some bookies.
Taxmen have so far summoned cricketing icon Kapil Dev, star batsman Ajay Jadeja, Ajay Sharma, Nikhil Chopra, Mukesh Gupta and Rattan Mehta for questioning.
