HC directs Serina to pay Rs 97 lakh as income tax

Partly allowing a petition by the Income Tax department, the Madras High Court here on Wednesday directed Serija Banu alias Serina, arrested in 2003 for alleged possession of ganja and unaccounted cash of Rs 1.40 crore, to pay Rs 97.18 lakh towards IT.

Justice G.M. Akbar Ali said the department was entitled to receive only Rs 97.18 lakh, the amount being the tax applicable on the seized cash, for the assessment years 2004-05 and 2005-06, and not the entire money.

He also allowed Serina’s revision petition and directed the Special Court for narcotics cases here to return her car, passport and 21 sovereigns of jewels and the balance amount available after deducting Rs 97.18 lakh towards IT from Rs 1.40 crore.

Police had seized Rs 1.40 crore cash, 20 kg of ganja, a luxury car and jewels from Serina’s houses here and in Chennai in July 2003. Serina was acquitted in the ganja case in June 2006 but the Income Tax Department had filed a plea demanding that she pay tax on the cash seized from her.

The case became sensational at that time as Serina claimed innocence and alleged she was tortured by police.

Meanwhile, she filed a plea before the District Court seeking an order to the authorities to return her cash, jewels, car and passport. The court allowed the return of cash but declined to release other items following which she filed the revision petition.

Serina had claimed that the cash belonged to one Jagadeesh Raja of Tirunveli who said it was given to him by Delhi-based Chartered Accountant Ravi Chopra for purchasing waste land.

Disagreeing with the trial court order, Justice Ali said there was no hassle in declaring that the huge amount seized was undisclosed income as neither Banu nor her mother claimed ownership. Chopra, who purportedly owned the money, had not filed any application for return of the cash.

“There is no evidence to show that there is a person in the name of Ravi Chopra and that he has given more than a crore to Jagadeesh Raja for investment in waste land and the same was given to a 21-year-old girl for safe custody,” the Judge said.

Nevertheless, there was no other option but to declare Serina and her mother the owners of the cash because it was seized from them, the Judge observed, ordering the return of the money deposited in a nationalised bank ever since the seizure, after deducting the amount towards IT.