CHENNAI, APRIL 10: All attempts by AIADMK general secretary and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha to show that she had grown sweet grapes as a small farmer and sold them for a fancy sum of about Rs 10 lakh each year between 1987-88 and 1992-93, have turned sour with the Income Tax department detecting that there were no grapes, sweet or sour, grown or sold by the small farmer during this period.Jayalalitha claimed that during these years, she earned an agricultural income of near about Rs 10 lakh each year by selling grapes, which, according to her, were being grown at her GD Metla Farm House on the outskirts of Hyderabad. But investigations by the Income-Tax department proved that there was no sale of grapes in the said period.The IT investigations concluded that the grape garden was dry and no crop cultivation was done during the period. Jayalalitha subsequently replanted the crops during 1997-98 and the crops were yet to yield fruits.When the IT department sought her explanation onagricultural income, Jayalalitha said that she had the records to prove it, but sought time to submit them. Later, she produced records and bills relating to sale of grapes.A team from the IT department went to the Agricultural Marketing Society in Hyderabad to verify her claims. When they interrogated the commission agent from whom Jayalalitha had produced the bills for her agricultural income, he reportedly admitted that he had not sold the grapes. The agent stated that he gave bills when some persons approached him on behalf of Jayalalitha. Subsequent verification with the Agricultural Market Yard also proved that Jayalalitha's claim was not true. Interestingly, when the `small farmer' replanted the grape garden during 1997-98, she installed a drip irrigation system for which she received a subsidy of Rs two lakh from the Andhra Pradesh Government, since there was a scheme to promote drip irrigation system in the state.After finding no truth in her claims, the Income-Tax department issued ashow-cause notice to Jayalalitha saying that what she has stated to the department was not correct and that she was bringing in `unaccounted money'. The IT department has not accepted her claims from agricultural income for the assessment year 1994-95 also.While the agricultural income admitted by Jayalalitha for the assessment years 1987-88 to 1992-93 were accepted at the time of assessment (primarily on account of an administrative instruction of the then CCIT), subsequent references to the Horticulture Department of Andhra Pradesh revealed that her claims of income from sale of grapes were not true. The matter was administratively referred to the Director-General, who has since approved taking remedial action and the IT department issued notices to Jayalalitha on March 23, 1998 for reopening of the assessment.
