The Evening Wrap: Congress gets fresh I-T notice of ₹1,823 crore, party calls it tax terrorism

The Income Tax department has served a fresh notice of ₹1,823 crore to the Congress for discrepancies in tax returns for previous years, dealing another blow to the cash-strapped party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, party treasurer Ajay Maken and general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on March 29. The tax penalties along with interest relate to discrepancies in tax returns for years 2017-18 to 2020-21. The fresh notice was received earlier this week. Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Ramesh accused the BJP of “indulging in tax terrorism”. Through the “electoral bonds scam”, Ramesh said the “BJP has collected ₹8,200 crore and used the route of “pre-paid, post-paid, post-raid bribes and shell companies”. “The Congress has received a demand of ₹1,823 crore from Income Tax department. They have raised a demand of ₹53 crore alone from 1993-94 when Sitaram Kesri was the President,” Maken said. He alleged that the BJP is in serious violation of income-tax laws and said the I-T department should raise a demand of more than ₹4,600 crore from the saffron party for such violations. “Going by the fines of the Income Tax department for so-called violations, the BJP should then pay a penalty of ₹4,600 crore,” he added. The Congress party will move the Supreme Court early next week, Maken said. The Congress is already facing a funds crunch after Income Tax authorities imposed a penalty of ₹210 crore and froze its funds. The party has not received any relief from the High Court in the case and is likely to move the Supreme Court. The party has accused the BJP of squeezing it financially and of using tax authorities against it ahead of Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19.The Income Tax department has served a fresh notice of ₹1,823 crore to the Congress for discrepancies in tax returns for previous years, dealing another blow to the cash-strapped party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, party treasurer Ajay Maken and general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on March 29. The tax penalties along with interest relate to discrepancies in tax returns for years 2017-18 to 2020-21. The fresh notice was received earlier this week. Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Ramesh accused the BJP of “indulging in tax terrorism”. Through the “electoral bonds scam”, Ramesh said the “BJP has collected ₹8,200 crore and used the route of “pre-paid, post-paid, post-raid bribes and shell companies”. “The Congress has received a demand of ₹1,823 crore from Income Tax department. They have raised a demand of ₹53 crore alone from 1993-94 when Sitaram Kesri was the President,” Maken said. He alleged that the BJP is in serious violation of income-tax laws and said the I-T department should raise a demand of more than ₹4,600 crore from the saffron party for such violations. “Going by the fines of the Income Tax department for so-called violations, the BJP should then pay a penalty of ₹4,600 crore,” he added. The Congress party will move the Supreme Court early next week, Maken said. The Congress is already facing a funds crunch after Income Tax authorities imposed a penalty of ₹210 crore and froze its funds. The party has not received any relief from the High Court in the case and is likely to move the Supreme Court. The party has accused the BJP of squeezing it financially and of using tax authorities against it ahead of Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19. ‘Maharally’ at Ramlila: Opposition prepares for a big showdown on March 31 Opposition is preparing for a big showdown on March 31, at Ramlila ground, where the INDIA bloc is scheduled to hold a rally to protest against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate. Along with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi, top leaders of 11 other Opposition parties have confirmed their presence at the event. This will be the first public meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders since the coalition was founded on June 23 last year in Patna. The alliance in September last year had announced a public rally in Bhopal coinciding with the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, but that never materialised. The more recent efforts – one in Patna after RJD’s Jan Vishwas Rally last month and the March 17 rally in Mumbai at the close of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, saw only scant presence from the Opposition ranks. Trinamool Congress, which refused to cede any seat to the Congress, will also be seen at the event. Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien will be representing his party. Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray, and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav have confirmed their presence. The Left will also be present in full force. General Secretaries of four left parties – CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) and Forward Bloc, will be participating. The DMK will be represented by the party’s Rajya Sabha leader Tiruchi Siva. The Opposition parties had failed to take a similar step when former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was arrested. AAP has received permission of the authorities concerned for holding the rally, being held in the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, at the Ramleela ground on Sunday for an attendance of more than 20,000 people, he said. The call on whether Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal will address the ‘Maharally’ will be taken later, he said. ED wants AAP’s Lok Sabha poll strategy details from Arvind Kejriwal’s phone: Atishi The Enforcement Directorate is working as Bharatiya Janata Party’s political weapon and it wants to get details of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Lok Sabha election strategy by accessing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s phone, senior AAP leader Atishi alleged on March 29. Kejriwal, the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was arrested by the central probe agency on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case and is in its custody till April 1. The insistence of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to look into Kejriwal’s mobile-phone, which is a few months old and did not exist when the policy was formed and implemented, proves that the agency is working as a “political weapon” of the BJP, Atishi alleged at a press conference in New Delhi. Atishi, a Minister in the Kejriwal government, said “it is the BJP, and not the ED, that wants to know what is there on Kejriwal’s phone”. The excise policy was implemented in 2021-22 and the Chief Minister’s current phone is just a few months old, the AAP leader said. The ED has said that Kejriwal’s phone from that period is not available, and now, it wants the password of his new phone, she added. “They want it because they will find in it details of AAP’s Lok Sabha poll strategy, campaign plans, talks with INDIA bloc leaders and information regarding media and social media strategy,” she said. The bloc has been formed by some opposition parties, including the AAP, the TMC, the Congress, the DMK and the SP, to counter the BJP in the parliamentary polls. The 2021-22 policy was scrapped following allegations corruption. U.P. court orders judicial probe into Mukhtar Ansari’s death A chief judicial magistrate’s court in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda on March 29 ordered a judicial inquiry into the death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, a senior official said. Banda Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Bhagwan Das Gupta appointed Garima Singh, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (MP-MLA Court Banda) as the investigating officer in the case, the official said. The CJM has sought the probe report within a month. The 63-year-old Ansari was brought to the Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda from the district jail in “an unconscious state” on Thursday evening and died at the hospital following a cardiac arrest. Afzal Ansari, who is also the Ghazipur MP, on Tuesday alleged that his brother was given slow poison in jail. “Mukhtar said that he was given a poisonous substance in food in jail. This happened for the second time. Around 40 days ago also he was given poison. And recently, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition is bad,” Afzal Ansari had said. Afzal Ansari had said that during the virtual hearing of a case in a Barabanki court on March 21, Ansari’s lawyer had filed an application in the court alleging that his client had been given “slow poison” in jail due to which his condition was deteriorating. Earlier, Ansari was hospitalised for around 14 hours on Tuesday after he complained of abdominal pain. According to the probe order letter, a request was made by the Senior Superintendent, District Jail, Banda on March 28 to nominate an officer for the judicial inquiry into the death of Ansari. Director General of Prisons SN Sabat had earlier told PTI that there will be a judicial inquiry into the matter. Poll roundup: A day after last date of filing nomination papers for the first phase poll on April 19, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress-led mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar announced seat-sharing details on March 29. The announcement was made at State RJD headquarters jointly by RJD, Congress and three Left parties which form mahagathbandhan in the state. As per the announcement, the RJD will contest on 26 seats, Congress on nine, and the Left parties on the remaining five seats. Bihar has a total of 40 Lok Sabha constituencies. A district in western Assam has gone pink to make its women vote as much as or more than their male counterparts. Nalbari is among very few districts where almost all officers are women. Apart from District Commissioner and District Election Officer (DEO) Varnali Deka and Superintendent of Police Supriya Das, they include the Deputy DEO, Finance and Accounts Officer, Treasury Officer, District Information and Public Relations Officer, and District Social Welfare Officer. The majority of the Additional Deputy Commissioners, Circle Officers, and Block Development Officers are women too. So are some 300 polling personnel across the district covering three Assembly segments of the Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency. Women in the district, however, have lagged behind in exercising their franchise. “In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the gap between male and female voters in Nalbari was wider than those at the national and State levels,” Deka said on Friday. The Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO), demanding a separate administration for six districts of Nagaland, has rejected an appeal by a legislators’ union to not boycott the Lok Sabha elections on April 19. Nagaland has one parliamentary constituency. At a coordination meeting in Tuensang on March 28, the ENPO upheld its February 23 decision to boycott the parliamentary polls in protest against the Centre’s failure to create the Frontier Nagaland Territory. The Eastern Nagaland Legislators’ Union had asked the organisation to reconsider its decision. The union has 20 MLAs representing as many Assembly constituencies covering eastern Nagaland. In Brief Out of the 514 sitting Lok Sabha MPs analysed, 225 (44%) have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to the self-sworn affidavits analysed by poll rights body Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). Out of those analysed, 5% are billionaires, with assets exceeding ₹100 crore. The report by the ADR, which scrutinised affidavits of the sitting MPs, revealed that among the sitting MPs with criminal charges, 29% face serious criminal cases, including allegations of murder, attempt to murder, promoting communal disharmony, kidnapping, and crimes against women. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 29 March 2024 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Congress gets fresh I-T notice of ₹1,823 crore, party calls it tax terrorism The Income Tax department has served [a fresh notice of ₹1,823 crore to the Congress]( for discrepancies in tax returns for previous years, dealing another blow to the cash-strapped party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, party treasurer Ajay Maken and general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on March 29. The tax penalties along with interest relate to discrepancies in tax returns for years 2017-18 to 2020-21. The fresh notice was received earlier this week. Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Ramesh accused the BJP of “indulging in tax terrorism”. Through the “electoral bonds scam”, Ramesh said the “BJP has collected ₹8,200 crore and used the route of “pre-paid, post-paid, post-raid bribes and shell companies”. “The Congress has received a demand of ₹1,823 crore from Income Tax department. They have raised a demand of ₹53 crore alone from 1993-94 when Sitaram Kesri was the President,” Maken said. He alleged that the BJP is in serious violation of income-tax laws and said the I-T department should raise a demand of more than ₹4,600 crore from the saffron party for such violations. “Going by the fines of the Income Tax department for so-called violations, the BJP should then pay a penalty of ₹4,600 crore,” he added. The Congress party will move the Supreme Court early next week, Maken said. The Congress is already facing a funds crunch after Income Tax authorities imposed a penalty of ₹210 crore and froze its funds. The party has not received any relief from the High Court in the case and is likely to move the Supreme Court. The party has accused the BJP of squeezing it financially and of using tax authorities against it ahead of Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19.The Income Tax department has served a fresh notice of ₹1,823 crore to the Congress for discrepancies in tax returns for previous years, dealing another blow to the cash-strapped party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, party treasurer Ajay Maken and general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on March 29. The tax penalties along with interest relate to discrepancies in tax returns for years 2017-18 to 2020-21. The fresh notice was received earlier this week. Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Ramesh accused the BJP of “indulging in tax terrorism”. Through the “electoral bonds scam”, Ramesh said the “BJP has collected ₹8,200 crore and used the route of “pre-paid, post-paid, post-raid bribes and shell companies”. “The Congress has received a demand of ₹1,823 crore from Income Tax department. They have raised a demand of ₹53 crore alone from 1993-94 when Sitaram Kesri was the President,” Maken said. He alleged that the BJP is in serious violation of income-tax laws and said the I-T department should raise a demand of more than ₹4,600 crore from the saffron party for such violations. “Going by the fines of the Income Tax department for so-called violations, the BJP should then pay a penalty of ₹4,600 crore,” he added. The Congress party will move the Supreme Court early next week, Maken said. The Congress is already facing a funds crunch after Income Tax authorities imposed a penalty of ₹210 crore and froze its funds. The party has not received any relief from the High Court in the case and is likely to move the Supreme Court. The party has accused the BJP of squeezing it financially and of using tax authorities against it ahead of Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19. ‘Maharally’ at Ramlila: Opposition prepares for a big showdown on March 31 [Opposition is preparing for a big showdown]( on March 31, at Ramlila ground, where the INDIA bloc is scheduled to hold a rally to protest against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate. Along with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi, top leaders of 11 other Opposition parties have confirmed their presence at the event. This will be the first public meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders since the coalition was founded on June 23 last year in Patna. The alliance in September last year had announced a public rally in Bhopal coinciding with the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, but that never materialised. The more recent efforts – one in Patna after RJD’s Jan Vishwas Rally last month and the March 17 rally in Mumbai at the close of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, saw only scant presence from the Opposition ranks.  Trinamool Congress, which refused to cede any seat to the Congress, will also be seen at the event. Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien will be representing his party. Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray, and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav have confirmed their presence. The Left will also be present in full force. General Secretaries of four left parties – CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) and Forward Bloc, will be participating. The DMK will be represented by the party’s Rajya Sabha leader Tiruchi Siva. The Opposition parties had failed to take a similar step when former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was arrested. AAP has received permission of the authorities concerned for holding the rally, being held in the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, at the Ramleela ground on Sunday for an attendance of more than 20,000 people, he said. The call on whether Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal will address the ‘Maharally’ will be taken later, he said. ED wants AAP’s Lok Sabha poll strategy details from Arvind Kejriwal’s phone: Atishi The Enforcement Directorate is working as Bharatiya Janata Party’s political weapon and it wants to get details of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Lok Sabha election strategy by accessing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s phone, senior [AAP leader Atishi alleged]( on March 29. Kejriwal, the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was arrested by the central probe agency on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case and is in its custody till April 1. The insistence of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to look into Kejriwal’s mobile-phone, which is a few months old and did not exist when the policy was formed and implemented, proves that the agency is working as a “political weapon” of the BJP, Atishi alleged at a press conference in New Delhi. Atishi, a Minister in the Kejriwal government, said “it is the BJP, and not the ED, that wants to know what is there on Kejriwal’s phone”. The excise policy was implemented in 2021-22 and the Chief Minister’s current phone is just a few months old, the AAP leader said. The ED has said that Kejriwal’s phone from that period is not available, and now, it wants the password of his new phone, she added. “They want it because they will find in it details of AAP’s Lok Sabha poll strategy, campaign plans, talks with INDIA bloc leaders and information regarding media and social media strategy,” she said. The bloc has been formed by some opposition parties, including the AAP, the TMC, the Congress, the DMK and the SP, to counter the BJP in the parliamentary polls. The 2021-22 policy was scrapped following allegations corruption. U.P. court orders judicial probe into Mukhtar Ansari’s death A chief judicial magistrate’s court in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda on March 29 [ordered a judicial inquiry into the death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari]( a senior official said. Banda Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Bhagwan Das Gupta appointed Garima Singh, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (MP-MLA Court Banda) as the investigating officer in the case, the official said. The CJM has sought the probe report within a month. The 63-year-old Ansari was brought to the Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda from the district jail in “an unconscious state” on Thursday evening and died at the hospital following a cardiac arrest. Afzal Ansari, who is also the Ghazipur MP, on Tuesday alleged that his brother was given slow poison in jail. “Mukhtar said that he was given a poisonous substance in food in jail. This happened for the second time. Around 40 days ago also he was given poison. And recently, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition is bad,” Afzal Ansari had said. Afzal Ansari had said that during the virtual hearing of a case in a Barabanki court on March 21, Ansari’s lawyer had filed an application in the court alleging that his client had been given “slow poison” in jail due to which his condition was deteriorating. Earlier, Ansari was hospitalised for around 14 hours on Tuesday after he complained of abdominal pain. According to the probe order letter, a request was made by the Senior Superintendent, District Jail, Banda on March 28 to nominate an officer for the judicial inquiry into the death of Ansari. Director General of Prisons SN Sabat had earlier told PTI that there will be a judicial inquiry into the matter. Poll roundup: - A day after last date of filing nomination papers for the first phase poll on April 19, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress-led mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar [announced seat-sharing details]( on March 29. The announcement was made at State RJD headquarters jointly by RJD, Congress and three Left parties which form mahagathbandhan in the state. As per the announcement, the RJD will contest on 26 seats, Congress on nine, and the Left parties on the remaining five seats. Bihar has a total of 40 Lok Sabha constituencies. - A [district in western Assam has gone pink]( to make its women vote as much as or more than their male counterparts. Nalbari is among very few districts where almost all officers are women. Apart from District Commissioner and District Election Officer (DEO) Varnali Deka and Superintendent of Police Supriya Das, they include the Deputy DEO, Finance and Accounts Officer, Treasury Officer, District Information and Public Relations Officer, and District Social Welfare Officer. The majority of the Additional Deputy Commissioners, Circle Officers, and Block Development Officers are women too. So are some 300 polling personnel across the district covering three Assembly segments of the Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency. Women in the district, however, have lagged behind in exercising their franchise. “In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the gap between male and female voters in Nalbari was wider than those at the national and State levels,” Deka said on Friday. - The Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO), demanding a separate administration for six districts of Nagaland, has [rejected an appeal by a legislators’ union to not boycott the Lok Sabha elections]( on April 19. Nagaland has one parliamentary constituency. At a coordination meeting in Tuensang on March 28, the ENPO upheld its February 23 decision to boycott the parliamentary polls in protest against the Centre’s failure to create the Frontier Nagaland Territory. The Eastern Nagaland Legislators’ Union had asked the organisation to reconsider its decision. The union has 20 MLAs representing as many Assembly constituencies covering eastern Nagaland. In Brief Out of the 514 sitting Lok Sabha MPs analysed, [225 (44%) have declared criminal cases]( against themselves, according to the self-sworn affidavits analysed by poll rights body Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). Out of those analysed, 5% are billionaires, with assets exceeding ₹100 crore. The report by the ADR, which scrutinised affidavits of the sitting MPs, revealed that among the sitting MPs with criminal charges, 29% face serious criminal cases, including allegations of murder, attempt to murder, promoting communal disharmony, kidnapping, and crimes against women. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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