Bombay High Court: Why no action against Kripashankar Singh?

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday issued notice to the Enforcement Department in the disproportionate assets case of Congress leader Kripashankar Singh, and also asked the Income Tax department why it didn’t take action against Mr Singh for obtaining two Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards.

The court has directed the I-T department and state government to file an affidavit within two weeks in this regard. The HC was hearing a petition filed by activist Tulsidas Nair, who alleged that Mr Singh has four PAN cards and bogus school and college degree certificates.

A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi was hearing the petition filed by Mr Nair, who is a resident of Kalina.

He alleged that Mr Singh and his family have disproportionate assets worth crores of rupees. He also alleged Mr Singh and his family have more than two PAN cards and he has in his illegal possession many unlicensed weapons. Mr Nair alleged that Mr Singh has a bogus school-leaving certificate and college degree.

The petitioner further demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe and alleged that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has not done anything so far with respect to probing the disproportionate assets case based on his petition.

During the previous hearing, the court had asked the state government to file its reply on the progress of the investigation into the assets case.

On Monday, chief public prosecutor Sandip Shinde informed the court that ACB, which is probing another disproportionate assets case against Mr Singh, has already filed chargesheet in that case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and shared the investigation reports with ED to register an offence in the case.

Mr Shinde further told the Bombay high court that almost all the allegations raised by Mr Nair have already been investigated in the other probe into Mr Singh’s alleged disproportionate assets. But the Bombay high  court asked the state government to again go through the chargesheet filed in that case and file an affidavit that all the allegations (made by Mr Nail) are already covered. The Bombay high court also issued notice to Enforcement Directorate.

Meanwhile, the I-T department submitted report to the court and informed that according to the complaint made by Mr Nair, it has found that two numbers that Mr Nair has given are not PAN card numbers and they do not exist.

The I-T department’s lawyer also said that the department had deactivated the earlier card after issuing another.

On hearing this, the court asked, “Applying for a second PAN card despite having one PAN card is unlawful, isn’t it? Then why has the I-T department not taken action against him according to the law? Why were you lenient on him?” The cour-t further has asked the IT department to file its reply within two weeks.