The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday restricted the benefit of its interim order only to one of the co-accused in the case filed by the Income Tax Department against Minister for Water Resources and Medical Education D.K. Shivakumar and four others for allegedly attempting to evade tax wilfully and filing false I-T statement.
With the modified interim order, now the proceedings initiated by the Special Court for Economic Offences against Mr. Shivakumar and three other accused can continue as the High Court has restricted the interim order only to Sachin Narayan, a business associate of Mr. Shivakumar and one of the accused in the case.
Justice B. Veerappa passed the order modifying the July 30 interim order, in which the sanction order of the I-T Department was stayed in its entirety though only Mr. Narayan had approached the High Court. All the accused claimed benefit of the sanction order before the Special Court of Economic Offences as the sanction order of the I-T Department was a common order passed against all the five accused.
‘Suppressed’
The High Court modified the interim order after Additional Solicitor General of India (Karnataka HC) Prabuling Navadgi, appearing for the department, pointed out that the interim order was obtained by “suppressing” the fact that the Special Court had registered a criminal case and issued summons to all the accused much before the petition was filed before the High Court.
Though the counsel representing the petitioner argued that there was “no suppression of material fact”, the court said the benefit of the interim order would be restricted only to the petitioner, and adjourned further hearing till August 21.
The I-T Department filed the criminal case against Mr. Shivakumar and others after after seizure of “unaccounted” cash of ₹8.59 crore during raids conducted on four flats, belonging to Mr. Shivakumar and his business associates, in Delhi last year .