In a major relief to the former Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, and her close associate N. Sasikala, the income tax cases against them for non-filing of returns, pending for the past 18 years, have been withdrawn.
After passing an order accepting the compounding fee and other charges totalling nearly Rs. 2 crore paid by the accused, the Income Tax Department filed a petition before a city magistrate court on Thursday, withdrawing the criminal proceedings.
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Economic Offences-I, R. Dakshinamoorthy, dismissed the cases as withdrawn.
While two cases related to the non-filing of personal income tax returns against Ms. Jayalalithaa and Ms. Sasikala for the assessment year 1993-1994, the other two were for their non-filing of returns as partners of Sasi Enterprises for 1991-92 and 1992-1993.
Even as the cases were listed for hearing in June last year, the accused expressed their willingness to seek compounding of the offences and filed compounding applications.
Rs. 2 cr. paid as charges
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Economic Offences-I, R. Dakshinamoorthy, on Thursday dismissed the cases against former chief minister Jayalalithaa and her aide N. Sasikala for non-filing of returns after the accused paid the compounding fees and other charges totaling Rs 2 crore.
The Regional Compounding Committee (RCC), at its meeting held on November 26, 2014 decided to accept the request from the accused to pay the charges. A total of Rs.1,99,93,061 was remitted to the department in compounding fee on November 27. last year.
When the matter came up before the Additional CMM, , Economic Offences-I, on Thursday, counsel J. Karuppiah and D. Vairamurthy filed a memo on behalf of the accused, stating that the RCC accepted the compounding of the offences. Following this, the Senior Special Public Prosecutor for Income Tax, K. Ramasamy, filed petitions seeking withdrawal of the prosecution proceedings. against the accused.
The court said that since the offence under Section 276 (CC) of the Income Tax Act had been compounded by the competent authority, it was allowing the petitions. It also recorded the order passed by the department in the compounding applications. The court ordered that the cases against the two were dismissed as withdrawn and discharged the accused.
