Jagan assets case: Court to give order on IT petition on 21 Nov

Hyderabad: A local court today posted for orders to 21 November, the petitions of Income Tax Department, seeking copies of documents seized by the CBI during the probe of corruption charges against Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy and the alleged irregularities in the Emaar Properties land deal. After hearing arguments from both the defense and the prosecution, the special court for CBI cases reserved the orders in the matter to 21 November. The I-T officials in Bangalore and Hyderabad had approached the court last month seeking a direction to the CBI for sharing the material seized during searches on the premises of the YSR Congress chief and the group of companies owned by him. [caption id=“attachment_134722” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=" The I-T officials in Bangalore and Hyderabad had approached the court last month seeking a direction to the CBI for sharing the material seized during searches on the premises of the YSR Congress chief. PTI “]  [/caption] They are seeking directions to the CBI to provide information on the seized material so that the I-T department could “frame” the pending assessment of Jagan, the group of companies owned by him, and the Emaar Hill Township Pvt Ltd. Strongly opposing requests for soft copies of the entire seized material, senior defense counsel EUmamaheshwar Rao contended that “no provision has been cited by the I-T Department seeking the documents” and wanted the petitioners to instead file fresh petitions, listing out the relevant documents that are necessary for finalising the proceedings. “They (IT department) must specify what documents are relevant for completion of assessment. We never failed in responding to their notices and are ready to furnish the required and necessary documents for the purpose of assessment proceedings, as sought,” he submitted, adding that the I-T Department already had access and seen the documents seized by the CBI. Referring to another petition by the I-T (Hyderabad) Department on sharing of material seized by the CBI of Emaar Hill Township Pvt Ltd (EHTPL), the defense counsel termed the I-T Department’s contention as “without basis” that CBI, during its course of investigation, detected gross undervaluation of plots. The public prosecutor submitted that the I-T officials had first approached the CBI for information on the seized documents but the latter asked them to seek court permission and hence they were now requesting the court for the directive. “It’s only an exchange of information between the government agencies, and they would access only relevant documents required for the assessment,” the prosecution counsel said. PTI