I-T begins probe against two Bangalore businessmen

Income Tax authorities in Bangalore have initiated proceedings against two prominent local businessmen who were featured in a list of Indians holding accounts with HSBC bank in London that was provided to Indian Income Tax authorities.

I-T authorities have filed tax evasion cases against real estate businessman Jitendra Mohandas Virwani, chairman of Embassy Group, and Alok Bhartia, vice-chairman of Taegu Tec India, a subsidiary of South Korean tools and instruments company.

The Indian Express had revealed the names of the two among a list of Indians with foreign accounts in HSBC London on February 9 this year and Virwani was reported to have a Rs 9 lakh balance in his account as of 2006-07 and Bhartia Rs 8.37 crore balance in his account.
Income Tax authorities filed complaints for tax evasion against Virwani and Bhartia in a special economic offences court on March 26 & 30 respectively this year.

While Virwani has been booked under Section 276 C(1) of the Income Tax Act of 1995 for alleged wilful evasion of tax, Bhartia has been booked under Section 277 of the Income Tax Act of 1995 for alleged false statements made during verifications. The special economic offences court has issued summons to both businessmen to appear on April 30.

Virwani, a major realtor in Bangalore, featured at number 62 in a Forbes India rich list. He has developed several prominent properties in Bangalore and is a partner of Karnataka home minister K J George in the development of Embassy Golf Links, a prominent tech park in east Bangalore.

Income tax sources said that Virwani had earlier paid a fine under protest for alleged tax evasion.

Industrialist Alok Bhartia is the head of the Indian subsidiary of South Korean machine tools company Taegu Tec which has maverick US investor Warren Buffett as one of its investors.

Bhartia incidentally has two other cases of tax evasion pending against him – one registered on January 31, 2015 under Section 276 C (1) of the Income Tax Act and another registered on November 7, 2014 under Section 276 D for failing to produce accounts and documents.
The Income Tax authorities have also booked a case against a third local businessman Ramesh Madhok whose HSBC London account details were accessed by Income Tax authorities.

A complaint was registered against Madhok, an investment manager and Director at Westcon India Pvt. Ltd, in a special economic offences court on March 2, 2015.

The court has summoned Madhok for appearance on April 27.