A Delhi court on Friday issued fresh summons to budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd, its former Chairman Kalanithi Maran and an erstwhile top official in two tax evasion cases for their alleged failure to deposit over Rs 147 crore or Rs 1.47 billion TDS with the Income Tax (I-T) Department.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pritam Singh again issued summons to Maran, the firm and its then Managing Director S Natrajhen as the earlier summons were not served on the accused, who did not appear today. The court directed the three accused to appear before it on September 21.
"Summons issued to the accused not received back. Issue fresh summons to all the accused through Police Station Sabzi Mandi ... Put up for appearance of accused on September 21," the court said.
Advocate Brijesh Garg, appearing for the IT Department, told the court that the matter was listed for appearance of the accused but neither has anyone from their side appeared nor has any report been received on the summons.
The court had on July 21 issued summons to the firm, Maran and Natrajhen and directed them to appear today after taking cognizance of two I-T complaints filed against them.
It had said that prima facie commission of an offence was disclosed under sections 276B (if a person fails to pay to the credit of central government the tax deducted at source by him), 278B (offences by companies) read with section 278E (presumption as to culpable mental state) of the Income Tax Act for financial year 2013-14 and 2014-15.
The IT Department filed the two complaints against the three accused with identical allegations and said a survey under the Act was conducted at the business premises of the company on August 4 last year.
The department said that during the survey, it was found that the company had made payments to its deductees and deducted TDS against various payments to the tune of Rs 110.6 crore or Rs one billion during the financial year 2013-14, but had failed to deposit the TDS amount within the given time-frame.
Similarly, the I-T department said that SpiceJet had also made payment to its deductees and deducted TDS against various payments to the tune of Rs 36.5 crore during FY 2014-15 but failed to deposit it in the government account within the stipulated period.
The I-T officer, who was the complainant in the case, had deposed in the court that during the relevant period, Maran was the chairman and Natrajhen was the managing director of the company.
The officer had said show-cause notices were sent to the accused in September and October last year to which they had replied that they were non-executive chairman and managing director of the company for the relevant financial year.
He had also testified that during the survey operation, he had recorded the statement of R Neelkanthan, the then CFO of the company.
It had then transpired that the company had allegedly defaulted in depositing TDS amount of Rs 110.6 crore and Rs 36.5 crore for the financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15 in the government account.
