The body of Cafe Coffe Day founder VG Siddhartha was found from the banks of River Netravati in Mangaluru on Wednesday. The business Baron of Chikkamanglur was missing from Monday evening from the road bridge between Ullal and Mangaluru over the river. He wrote a letter to the CCD family before he went missing. And interestingly the letter revealed that he went through harassment from the previous DG of the Income Tax Department.
Now the Income Tax Department has denied such reports and said that they have only acted as per the law. The Office of Chief Commissioner of Income -Tax, Karnataka & Goa has clarified on Tuesday that ‘The income tax department has acted as per the provisions of Income Tax Act.” Moreover, it pointed out that his signature on the note was different from that on a letter being widely published on social media.
I-T depart. disputes his signature on the letter
“The note written by Siddhartha mentioned about the attachment of Coffee Day shares by the Income Tax Department. The authenticity of the note is not known and the signature does not tally with Siddhartha’s signature as available in his annual reports,” the statement reads. Source
The above statement comes after the letter, that accused a ‘previous DG’ of the Income Tax department of harassing Siddhartha. The Karnataka Congress party had slammed the income tax department for the tragic end of the entrepreneur. It also opposed the UPA government for making those policies for Indian entrepreneurs.
#VGSiddhartha case is very unfortunate.
Result of harassment by IT officials & decline of India’s entrepreneurial position turning virulent by the day, with Tax Terror & collapse of economy
Companies which flourished under UPA have been shut down with many people being jobless pic.twitter.com/rbwUymoM3B
— Karnataka Congress (@INCKarnataka) July 31, 2019
Claims of I-T dept.
The IT department has claimed that Siddhartha fetched Rs 3,200 crore from the sale of Mindtree shares, but has paid only Rs 46 crore out of the total minimum alternate tax (MAT) payable on the deal (Rs 300 crore). Moreover, it has also claimed to have searched a Singaporean citizen in this case and interestingly he was found with unaccounted cash of Rs 1.2 crore and the person then told tax officials that it belonged to Siddhartha.
The IT department has also said that its officers are investigating Siddhartha’s signature and will soon come up with a detail report. However, The CCD authorities have confirmed signature in the Suicide note to be of VG Siddhartha, the founder of the company. It also confessed that the note or letter circulating on social media since yesterday, was the last letter Siddhartha wrote to the board.
