The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, July 22, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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Income tax raids conclude
Lockers sealed, accounts frozen
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, July 21 — Income Tax officials, who had yesterday carried out raids on the residential and office premises of former and present international cricketers, cricket administrators and bookies, today sealed a large number of lockers, bank accounts and seized incriminating documents related to their undisclosed income and unexplained expenditure.

There were no indications as yet available to the possible arrest of any of the cricketers or the cricket administrators and bookies. The Income Tax department officials said with the sealing of the lockers and freezing of the bank accounts their task of carrying out the raids was over.

While 13 lockers have been sealed in Delhi, 10 have been sealed in Mumbai, two in Patiala and some in Calcutta. Mr S.C. Parija, Director-General (Investigations) said here the lockers would be opened on Monday.

The incriminating documents seized by the Income Tax officials mostly relate to fixed deposit receipts and investments on movable and immovable property. Up to 40 bank accounts have been found in the name of some of the bookies. Many cricketers, Mr Parija disclosed, had received expensive gifts including foreign cars and jewellery.

The documents will be scrutinised and the relevant ones given to the CBI to facilitate agency’s probe into the match-fixing allegations. Though Mr Parija avoided taking names, it is learnt that of the total of Rs 3 crore worth of jewellery recovered from the business premises of Mukesh Gupta in Delhi, Rs 55 lakh was unaccounted for.

The countrywide raids were conducted in about 85 places including Mumbai, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Patiala, Bangalore Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Delhi.

Asked if any cash was also recovered, Mr Parija said they were not expecting to find cash. “Considering that the issue has been in the limelight for quite some time, we were not expecting cash recoveries,” he said. The operations also covered close relations and friends and associates of some prominent cricketers.

IT officials swooped on 37 premises in Delhi alone. In one case, they said, settlement between the cricketer and bookie had been done in terms of land. “Details of hundreds of acres of acquired property has been found and the people involved will have to do a lot of explaining,” they added. Though the IT officials remained tight-lipped, two of the lockers sealed today are believed to belong to Kapil Dev.

Admitting that it was one of the biggest IT operations, Mr Parija, however, ruled out arrests on the basis of raids. “Under the IT rules, we can only impose penalty,” he said.

IT officials said homes of Gavaskar and Mongia were not raided. A large amount of cash was recovered from Gavaskar’s locker in Mumbai Gymkhana Club a few months back.

According to agency reports, tax officials had taken photocopies of vital documents including fixed deposits amounting to more than Rs 100 crore from BCCI treasurer Rungta’s office during search operations. They also recorded Rungta’s statement.

A team led by the Deputy Commissioner (Investigations) took photocopies of the BCCI accounts for the past 10 years and copies of “contracts” offered to international cricketers during the period.

The officials have also taken copies of the contracts made with other countries whose teams visited India or which hosted India for any tournament or series.

At the BCCI office at Brabourne Stadium in south Mumbai, the CBI last night sought details of the 1996 World Cup records and recorded statement of the board executive secretary. In Pune, eight bank lockers have been sealed and jewellery worth Rs 11 lakh seized from one bookie alone, former ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was in the capital while his home and offices in Calcutta were raided, was questioned by IT officials for several hours in a hotel here yesterday.

Meanwhile, former test cricketer Manoj Prabhakar, who brought the match-fixing controversy into limelight, today justified the raids. “These will help cleanse the system and expose the wrong-doers,” he said.

IT raids leave questions unanswered
By Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 21 — Countrywide income tax raids on the premises of cricketers and their families and business interests have left several questions unanswered and thrown up posers that need to be answered soon to clear the air of suspicion that has enveloped the nation after the ongoing raids.

Some important questions remain unanswered: Is the reported recovery of unaccounted wealth from the homes of cricketers linked to the ongoing match-fixing controversy ? Are the raids a bit too late in the day? And why are other cricketers and officials not being searched for similar unaccounted wealth ?

Knowledgeable city residents who deal with tax and company laws say the Income Tax Department will have to come out with clinching evidence that the money is linked to match-fixing or such raids to detect unaccounted wealth are fairly common in business circles.

On the other hand, people like Mr Sushil Kapoor, an old-time friend of Kapil Dev said: ‘’this witch-hunt must stop and the raids should not be selective in nature but cover all cricketers.’’ Mr Kapoor clarified his was not an emotional outburst stemming from a 30-year-old association with Kapil and his family while adding that the authorities must come out with the truth. If the so-called unaccounted wealth was not linked to match-fixing then the department should announce it and do it publicly.

Mr Praveen Gupta, vice-chairman of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, while praising the raids, said the department acted very late. Similar action should have come long ago. The raids would reveal concealed income, if any, that was the purpose of such an action. When asked why such raids could not target more persons WHO had been connected with the game in the past, Mr Gupta said probably the department took up the cases of those players and officials whose names had been cropping up in the past.

Supporting the income tax raids was Mr Jagmit Singh , vice-chairman of the Chandigarh Chapter of the Institute of Costs and Works Accountants of India. He said the raids should be conducted on all places to bring out the truth. Actually, regular checking of income tax returns should have taken place. The raids had been late in coming.

Avid cricket buff and income tax lawyer Sushil Ghai explained why family members had also been targeted. In all such cases when raids and searches were conducted by the tax authorities on the premises of a suspected person, next of kin were always searched. However, he added that the department would have to prove that any unaccounted wealth discovered by its sleuths was linked to match-fixing.

Secretary of the Chandigarh Cricket Association Surinder Singh Baiji said the raids should not have targeted the family of Kapil as his brothers were running their own businesses. If the department really wanted to prove anything, it should also search for the unaccounted income of politicians and officials and not just target players. It was common knowledge that cricketers were rich persons, but the raids were in bad taste. This selectiveness was giving the impression to the common man that whatever was being recovered by the Income Tax Department now was the money made through match-fixing, whereas in reality this might not be true.