Voter bribery row: Search assessments can be done till Dec 31 this year, says I-T dept

The allegation of bribing voters during RK Nagar by-poll leading to searches and seizures of documents at Health Minister C Vijayabaskar’s house took a different turn on Thursday with the Income Tax (IT) department informing the Madras High Court that the time limit for completion of search assessments in the case is available till December 31, 2019 and that the assessment proceedings are in progress.

When the plea seeking for a CBI enquiry into the money distribution in RK Nagar came up before the division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam on Thursday, the IT department filed its counter refuting all allegations made by the petitioner by quoting certain extracts from the written representation by opposition leader MK Stalin to the Governor on April 12, 2017.

Noting the petitioner’s claim that the IT department had released in public domain the documents seized from Vijayabaskar revealing the splitting of the constituency into 256 divisions and that one minister was responsible for few divisions is totally baseless and devoid of any evidence, the counter said, “The nature of search and seizure information is highly confidential and the IT department has never divulged any such facts either in public domain or media as alleged by the petitioner.”

IT counsel AP Srinivas also handed over certain documents and reports in a sealed cover and sought the bench to keep the same as confidentials documents.

However, senior counsel, P Wilson, appearing for the petitioner Marudhu Ganesh, submitted that the moment IT department decided to share its confidential documents and reports to Election Commission of India (ECI), which led to rescinding RK Nagar elections, the IT department cannot still claim it to be a confidential document.

He further submitted that in a case of public interest, questioning wastage of public money and to initiate criminal actions for acts of bribery, there should be absolute transparency in the court proceedings and that no privilege or confidentiality can be claimed by the IT department.

The bench then posted the matter to January 18 for further hearing.