NEW DELHI: Documents seized by the Income Tax Department during countrywide raids targeting liquor baron Kishore Chhabrias suggest that the Chhabrias made payments worth crores of rupees to Maharashtra politicians and Delhi VIPs, besides several bureaucrats and others.
A sheet paper and several documents seized by the income tax au. Thirties mention names like ‘Pawar,’ ‘George,’ ‘Anil Deshmukh,” ‘Mohile Patil,” ‘Imtiaz,” *Khandelwal’ and a host of others as recipients of illegal mony.
Sleuths of the investigator wing OF the Income Tax Department, who in ‘a midnight swoop struck on the premises of the Chhabrias in August last year, found documents which suggested that the liquor baron distributed crores of rupees to these “persons of eminence.”
Mr. Kishore Chhabrias, when questioned about the source of the money collected und distributed by him, maintained that the documents were ended over to him by his brother. Mr. M.R. Chhabrias, in 1992 for ‘keeping them temporarily” and that know nothing about their contents. Mr, Kishore Chhabrias had claimed that these papers belonged to Shaw Wallace & Company, owned by his elder brother, The income tax author ties, however, believe that this was a red herring, aimed at delaying the probe_ Mr. Kishore Chhabrias had no explanation to offer when it was pointed BOLO Rapa Nate oak en director of the company during 198792 when these payments were sup to have been made.
He had also claimed that he could not return these documents to his brother because they had parted ways.
Attempts to elicit a response from Mr, Kishore Chhabrias in Bombay, over the phone, proved unsuccessful. I will not talk to you. You talk to those who have given you the information,” he said angrily.
A fax sent to his elder brother also didn’t elicit any response, According to these documents, ‘Pawar’ has been aid Re 10 lakhs and ‘George’ Rs 5 lakhs while bureaucrats like ‘Imtiaz’ received Rs 1.27 crores and ‘Khandelwal’ Rs 1.41 crores, ‘Anil Deshmukh,’ these documents suggest, received Rs 5 lakhs while ‘Mohite Paul’ was paid Rs 4 lakhs.
Others entries are those of *Dhanalasan’ (Rs 26 lakhs). ‘G.K. Abuja’ (Rs 25 lakhs), “Vikas Concretes’ (Rs 15 lakhs), ‘TSV’ (Rs 10 lakhs), “Sanand Shetty’ (Rs 5 lakhs), “A.M, Chakravarii’ (Rs 3 lakhs), “Hiroo’ (Rs 3 lakhs) and ‘VMB’ (Rs 2.50 lakhs). Several others names and abbreviations mentioned in the list but not written clearly are still being scrutinized, But Mr, PN. Mittal, Member (Investigation) in the Central Board of Direct Taxes, confirmed the existence of this controversial sheet of paper in the pile of seized documents.
He said that the documents were being examined and that it was too early to say who the recipients of the money were.
When he was asked whether the Chhabrias had been questioned by the department, Mr. Mittal said that he was not aware of the details.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 31, 1996
