Indore: I-T sleuths arrest Bhadoria for evading Rs 98L tax

Indore: Cracking whip on long-term tax defaulters, income tax department (ITD) on Friday arrested a city based trader who had been evading a tax of Rs 98 lakh despite repeated notices and communications from the department.

Announcing the arrest at Aaykar Bhawan, principal commissioner-2 in chief commissioner of Indore region, Shelly Jindal said that Prakash Chandra Talreja (50), son of Alam Chandra, resident of Vir Sawarkar Nagar, was picked up by a team of I-T recovery officers from his home in the morning for not paying the due tax from financial year 2007 to 2012.

According to sources, Prakash, who was involved in heavy trading of various commodities, had been evading a principal tax amount of total Rs 64 lakh for the five consecutive financial years since 2012 attracting an interest and penalty of Rs 34 lakh on top of the principal.

Failing to recover the dues despite repeated notices and appeals in relevant forums, Prakash’s case was handed over to recovery wing in 2012 which further served him notices and show cause notice to settle the issue amicably. However, all the efforts went in vain as there was no positive response from Prakash in the matter.

Senior IRS officer Jindal said that “Prakash’s arrest has been made under the provisions of arrest and detention mentioned in Schedule-2 of Income Tax Act. After the arrest, he was produced before I-T recovery officer Shrija Anil Kumar who as per the Act possesses the power of magistrate as well. At present, the officer is interrogating Praksh and only after getting credible assurance of payment of the due tax, he can be released.”

However, according to the order by the tax recovery officer, Prakash will be kept in I-T custody till he could arrange the surety and in between, he will be interrogated where during daytime and sent back to jail again after office hours.
Notably, Prakash’s arrest was the second such strict action taken by the I-T department in the city after it arrested Ashwin Kataria from Khandwa on February 2 this year.