THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: More than a year after TOI exposed a shady land deal by DGP Jacob Thomas in
Tamil Nadu, the Income Tax has sent a show-cause notice, a provisional attachment order as well as a subsequent communique to the officer making
it clear that the property has been classified as a benami property, under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988.
The notice, dated June 29, issued by deputy commissioner of Income Tax (benami prohibition), Chennai, K Visakh explains why the department believes that the 50.33-acre property in Thomas' name at Sethur village at Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar is a benami property, and that it has decided to attach the property unless Thomas offers a satisfactory explanation.
Copies of the notice has also been served to sub-registrar of Sethur and district registrar of Virudhunagar to prevent any transaction of the mentioned property.
The notice has cited the TOI story (which appeared on March 14, 2017) about benami transaction and an observation by the judicial first class magistrate-II, Ernakulam, on February 17 this year that said that the property in the name of Thomas was indeed a benami property.
The matter pertains to the 50.33 acres of undisclosed land in the name of Thomas purchased in 2001. Though the property is in his name, his residential address was given as ISRA Agrotech Private Limited, a company registered in a commercial complex in Marine Drive in Kochi. The officer is neither a director of the company as per the details of the ministry of corporate affairs, nor was the address in the document his residential address.
The notice says that the independent auditor's report and the confirmation by the directors of ISRA Agrotech Private Limited that the land was registered in the name of Thomas as agricultural land cannot be registered in the name of company in Tamil Nadu were bogus, as there is no such restriction in place in Tamil Nadu.
The notice issued in the name of the officer in the address where he is residing in Thiruvananthapuram was returned without being delivered. The department slapped another notice on July 16 that said that in the wake of the earlier two notices being undelivered, the property is being considered as a benami property.
It is not known whether the officer has given a reply to the notice issued on July 16. A set of questions by TOI to the officer has been left unanswered.
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