New Delhi: The Sayed family of Bandra shot to national prominence yesterday when the Finance Ministry revealed that the family disclosed an astonishing Rs 2 lakh crore under the Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS). However, when Mumbai Mirror visited the address revealed in the Ministry’s statement, there was no trace of the Sayed family. The flat has been closed for seven years. No one in the neighbourhood has even heard of the family.
According to the ministry’s statement, a family of four Abdul Razzaque Mohammed Sayed, his son Aarif, wife Rukhsana and sister Noorjahan, who were shown as residents of Flat no 4, Ground Floor, Jubilee Court, 269-B, TPS-III, Linking Road, Bandra (W), filed a total declaration of Rs 2 lakh crore.
The secretary of the Jubilee Court building told Mirror that the flat is in the name of a company. “Nobody has stayed here in the last 7 years.” He also added that every six months, someone came to pay the maintenance charges. The name plate in the building shows the flat to be in the name of one `R R Vaid’, which society members said was the earlier owner, before the flat changed hands. A watchman from a nearby showroom claimed that two officers had approached them eight days ago asking about Jubilee Court.
Sources in Income Tax department said that while the department had initiated a probe against the Mumbai family, no one from the family had been questioned yet.
Sources have told Mirror that the Permanent Account Number (PAN) of Abdul was submitted in the form and his Income Tax returns of the past three years had been checked. “The department will now once again go through these details and would summon the family members for questioning,” said the IT source.
The Finance Ministry revealed that three out of the four PAN numbers of the Sayed family were originally reg istered in Ajmer and were migrated to Mumbai in September 2016, where the declarations were filed.
The government on Sunday revised the amount of black money disclosed under IDS to Rs 67,382 crore. This figure does not take into account the disclosures made by the Sayed family and the Rs 13,860 crore made by Mahesh Kumar Champaklal Shah of Ahmedabad.
“Among the declarations received, there were two sets of declarations of high value which were not taken on record in the above figure because these declarations were found to be suspicious in nature being filed by persons of small means,” read the Finance Ministry’s statement.
A probe is on against the Sayeds and Shah to determine the intention behind their false claims.
The Income Disclosure Scheme, formed to flush out black money, was announced in the Union Budget 2016-17. It provides immunity to those who declare hidden income and pay 45 per cent of the declared amount as tax, surcharge and penalty. The scheme closed on September 30 this year.
Bureau Report
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