The Income-Tax Department has served notices to the former Central Bureau of Investigation Director, A.P. Singh, and his wife seeking details of their assets, financial transactions and recent foreign visits.
The former CBI chief’s friend and Delhi-based meat exporter Moin Akhtar Qureshi is under the I-T department scanner for alleged tax evasion.
Mr. Singh, who is presently a Union Public Service Commission member, told The Hindu : “Yes we have received IT notices seeking details of our properties, bank accounts and foreign visits. It is a normal procedure and we will provide all the details to the I-T Department.”
Asked about his relations with Mr. Qureshi, Mr. Singh maintained that the businessman was his friend.
It is learnt that the notices issued under Section 131 (1A) of the IT Act has sought I-T returns of Mr. Singh and his wife, details of their credit card transactions and foreign trips made by them in the past few years.
Mr. Singh’s name initially cropped up during the I-T probe into Mr. Qureshi’s sources of income after the department found that the businessman took on rent a Delhi office property owned by the former CBI chief’s mother.
“I have no business dealings with him apart from rental of a family basement. This basement was given on rent by the family only after I demitted office of CBI Director,” said Mr. Singh.
As regards BlackBerry Messenger messages exchanged between Mr. Singh and Mr. Qureshi, he clarified that no messages relating to the CBI ongoing investigations were ever exchanged either before he demitted office or later.
“The messages pertain to the period October 2012 to February 2014. I demitted office in November 2012. In other words, the messages exchanged between December 2012 and February 2014 were of the period when I was not the CBI Director,” he said, adding that the messages showed that he and Mr. Qureshi were good friends.
Mr. Singh added: “To my knowledge he has never been the subject of a CBI investigation or any other proceedings of a criminal nature.”
