CBI asks I-T to provide details of assets of Azhar and Sharma

CBI asks I-T to provide details of assets of Azhar and Sharma
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, NOV 5: The CBI has asked the Income Tax (I-T) authorities to provide details of the assets of two cricketers -- Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Sharma -- against whom the agency has not ruled out the possibility of prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act as they were ``public servants''.

The agency sources said the CBI had written a letter to the Income Tax Department asking them to provide details of the assets of these two players.

The sleuths of the Special Crime Branch were also working on other leads available with them, the sources said.

Special Director G Achari, who was overall in-charge of the investigations into the match-fixing scandal, had said earlier, ``We will pursue the case against the two players under the PCA and we will not allow the matter to rest.''

``We are gathering more evidence against these two players and are waiting for more inputs from the Income Tax authorities,'' he had said adding ``At some stage, we may call them for further questioning, though not for the time being.''

Azhar is chief manager and PRO with public sector, State Bank of India, and Sharma is employed with the Central Warehousing Corporation.

The sources said though the prosecution of the two is not ruled out, the further course of action would depend on further evidence the agency is able to gather.

The CBI had referred its probe report to former Supreme Court judge Justice M K Mukherjee and Solicitor-General Harish Salve to get their expert legal opinion on ``whether the facts disclosed in the inquiry are sufficient to institute a case for any criminal offence''.

Though Justice Mukherjee ruled out a case of cheating against the players, on Azharuddin and Sharma, he said, ``The two players may be said to have committed offences under section 13 (1) (D) (I) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.''

Salve also felt there was no point in proceeding against the players due to ``improbability of investigating agency being able to obtain sufficient legal evidence''.

In its 162-page report, the CBI has said technically cases under PCA could be registered against Azharuddin and Sharma but added ``looking at the issue in totality, the question of registration of a case under sections 13 (1) (D) (I) and (III) (criminal misconduct) is under evaluation''.

On its part, Income Tax sources said CBI should not ``hurry'' in filing the FIR against any of the cricketers till the I-T department completed its assessment.

Sources informed that the I-T Department, which was hot on the cricketers' trail, had almost finalised the ``appraisal report'' about the raids conducted at the premises of several top cricketers, administrators and bookies, recently.

While a major portion of the appraisal report would be finalised by the end of this month, some may spill over to the next month, the sources said.

The `appraisal report' would be sent to assessment circles for officers to send show-cause notices to the players concered for paying up taxes due against their names, the sources said adding that undisclosed and unexplained income would be termed as deemed income ``automatically reopening'' the cases for a block year of 1991/2001.

``We have achieved reasonable success in the probe into cricketers and bookies who have huge concealed incomes from various sources,'' the sources said.

While detection of undisclosed and unexplained income would invite 60 per cent penalty without any interest or prosecution, subsequent detection of undisclosed and unexplained income would attract a hefty penalty for the defaulters, the sources said adding that the ``I-T laws are very severe''.

The Department has found some ``new leads'' over and above the CBI findings against the financial dealings of a bookie who had emerged as a key player in the match-fixing case, the sources said without elaborating.

They said the department would investigate afresh these leads and confront him with the evidence gathered.