The Delhi bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has upheld the penalty imposed by the I-T department on Young Indian, the organisation involved in the National Herald scam. As per a report in the Times of India, the ITAT has upheld the penalty levied on Young Indian on the grounds that it did not submit the information sought by the Income Tax Department.
According to the report, the bench remarked that the conduct of the assessee is not at all bonafide. The Young Indian had argued in its defence that the information which the IT department is seeking is similar to the points made BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in his PIL, which is currently pending before the Delhi High Court. It also argued further that any adjudication made by the IT court in the matter might further impact to the case which is pending before the Delhi high court. The ITAT, however, reportedly rejected te argument.
The investigations of the Income Tax department are giving the Congress party plenty of causes for worry. We had reported earlier that the IT Department suspected that Rahul Gandhi had failed to declare a significant portion of his income as he had hidden the fact that he was a director of Young India. Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia had also approached the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on the Rs 249.15 crore income tax proceedings against it. They had also pleased the Court to gag the media from reporting on the matter, a request that was declined.
It is pertinent to mention that Young India is at the heart of the National Herald case. The crux of the National Herald case revolves around the allegation that the Gandhis acquired property worth millions of rupees after Young India acquired Associate Journals Limited (AJL), which published the Congress mouthpiece, National Herald, via suspicious means of ownership transfer.