The Income Tax Department spent nearly three-and-a-half years giving opportunities for the two businessmen — Alok Bhartia and Romesh Madhok — to voluntarily disclose details of their Swiss Bank account transactions before launching criminal prosecution against them in February 2015.
While Alok Bhartia, though initially “admitted” during the searches conducted on his premises in August 2011 that he and his wife did possess an account with a Swiss bank, he denied having such account during proceedings held as per the I-T Act till December 2014. On the other hand, Mr. Madhok claimed that his company — Troyes Investing Corporation — did possess an account with HSBC Bank, he did not provide any details about it, claiming that it was not his personal account.
In its complaint, the department claimed that Mr. Bhartia had initially “signed” the affidavit admitting about possessing an account with HSBC Bank, Geneva.
However, during further proceedings, Mr. Bhartia claimed that he does not remember anything about HSBC Bank account.
Mr. Bhartia also stated that some persons might have opened an account in his name as a beneficiary.
The department complained that Mr. Bhartia disclosed Rs. 5.98 crore as additional as income, besides what he had already declared in his returns during 2007–08, during further proceedings but he did not provide any details on transaction on the Swiss bank despite many opportunities given to him.
Mr. Madhok, the department claimed, though admitted that the account with the HSBC Bank was eligible for operation by himself and his family members did not provide details for the reason that the account was held by the company.
