Chennai: In a relief to AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, a court here on Thursday discharged her from an 18-year old income tax return case, allowing withdrawal of prosecution by the I-T department consequent to acceptance of her compounding pleas by it.A total of four cases against Jayalalithaa, her aide Sasikala and a firm in which they are partners were “dismissed as withdrawn from prosecution” by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R Dakshinamurthy.”Orders passed by the Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) (on compouding) is perused. The case against the accused is dismissed as withdrawn from prosectuion under 321 Cr Pc. The accused are discharged,” he said citing a plea seeking nod for withdrawal of prosecution.Section 321 of CrPc allows withdrawal from prosecution by the Public Prosecutor with the consent of the court at any time before the judgment is pronounced.The cases were filed against Jayalalithaa and others in 1996 and 1997 for not filing income tax returns in their individual capacities and as partners of Sasi Enterprises.
Earlier in the day, Senior Special Public Prosecutor for I-T department K Ramasamy sought the court’s consent “to withdraw prosecution and not to pursue prosecution proceedings further” as the alleged offences were compounded under the Income Tax Act.Defence counsel J Karuppiah informed the court that final orders had been passed by the tax authorities and compounding fee paid by the accused.In his order compounding the offences, a copy of which was produced in the court, Director General of Income Tax (Investigations) T Jayasankar explained the rationale behind the decision.He said that on a reference by the compounding authorities about the conviction of Jayalalithaa by a Bengaluru court last year in an illegal assets case, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had stated that there was no bar under law to compound an offence during pendency of any proceedings initiated under the provisions of a different statute which are independent.Also, there was no other evidence or material linking the offence to any anti-national or terrorist activity and any case being investigated by CBI or such other agency. Importantly, the plea seeking compouding offences did not attract any negative conditions like a major fraud, scam or misappropriation of government fund or anti-national activity that disallow compounding, the order said.
It said revised guidelines were fulfilled including payment of compounding fee and no tax arrears or penalty was pending for the relevant assessment year.Jayalalithaa stated that due to her preoccupation she entrusted her tax matters to a Chartered Accountant who failed in his duties to file returns for 1993-94.
“It was stated by her that she did not willfully default in filing the return,” the order said. (PTI)