The income tax department has attached a house of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani located in Delhi in connection with an alleged Rs 3.62 crore tax evasion case against him.
The flat is located in Delhi’s Khirki Extension locality in Malviya Nagar area and the tax recovery officer (TRO) of the department has sealed it over alleged failure of Geelani to pay Rs 3,62,62,160 income tax for assessment years 1996-97 to 2001-02, as per an order accessed by PTI.
The department has undertaken the action under section 222 of the I-T Act (assessee deemed in default of tax payment) and it has “prohibited and restrained” the Hurriyat Conference leader from transferring the asset.
The TRO is an enforcement action-taking arm of the tax department and it deals with cases of willful defaulters. The authority is empowered to attach an asset and subsequently auction it to realise the tax dues.
The enforcement directorate (ED), last month, had levied a penalty of Rs 14.40 lakh on Geelani in a 17-year-old case of alleged illegal possession of USD 10,000 in alleged contravention of the foreign exchange law, officials said Friday.
The foreign currency, equivalent to about Rs 6.90 lakh, had also been confiscated by the ED as part of an order issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) on March 20, they said. This currency was seized during an Income Tax raid at Geelani’s residence in Srinagar’s Hyderpora area in 2002.