IT Notice to TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu

Vijayawada: The income tax department has issued a show-cause notice to Telugu Desam supremo and former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu asking him as to why tax proceedings should not be initiated against him as it was having an undisclosed income worth of Rs 118 crore received as kickback from infrastructure firms.

The show cause notice stated that once the case was notified to commence proceedings, notice under section 153 C was issued and the proceedings were in progress and mentioned that the IT department was having evidence of unaccounted income generated through bogus sub-contracts was given to Naidu.

The IT department took up inquiry after it carried out search operation on the premises of Manoj Vasudev Pardasany who was taking part in the tendering process in AP since December, 2017 on behalf of Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Private Limited and it also searched the premises of Pardasany’s associates in November, 2019.

The show cause notice stated that Pardasany admitted for arranging bogus contacts and work orders for siphoning off funds by SPCL to generate cash through fake sub-contractor companies and several incriminating messages, chats and excel sheets were also recovered from Pardasany and his associates during search operations showing how funds were siphoned off and  cash was generated by major infrastructure firms besides unearthing delivery of cash to Naidu.

The notice mentioned that from the statements from Pardasany recorded on November 1 and 5, 2019, it was found that funds were siphoned off from projects allocated to SPCL by AP government without doing actual work while L & T also siphoned off funds and delivered for use by Naidu through companies like Phonenix Infra and Pour Trading.

The IT department found out the total amount to be Rs 118.98 crore for 2020-21 which was siphoned off allegedly by Pardasany from various sub-contractor firms to pay Naidu and asked Naidu as to why such an amount should not be treated as undisclosed income.