Chennai: The Madras high court has upheld an order of a trial court convicting and sentencing S.R. Baskaran, former employee of RBI and a relative of Sasikala and a close aide of former Chief Minister late J. Jayalalithaa, and his wife Sreedaladevi to five years and three years Rigorous Imprisonment respectively in the Rs 1.69 crore disproportionate wealth case.
Justice G. Jayachandran dismissed the appeals filed by Baskaran and Sreedaladevi, challenging an order of the Special Court for CBI cases dated August 26, 2008. The judge said the investment in moveable and immoveable assets, cash, gold and silver articles seized during the search of the premises of Baskaran, by no stretch of imagination gives an impression that they were acquired through legal source.
The statute has taken pain to explain what “known sources of income” means is as income received from lawful source and such receipts has been intimated in accordance with the provisions of laws, rules or orders for the time being applicable to public servant. Thus, the legislature though permits a public servant to possess wealth, it expects from him or her that the wealth must be legitimate, the judge added.
The judge said mere declaring the income to the taxing authority belatedly or pointing out the source through someone else without accounting for the same with the appropriate authority will not make such source as a lawful source.
“In this case the receipts of the receiving resource for the properties held by the appellants never been intimated by Baskaran in according with the provisions of the Income Tax Act. What the appellant has done is after search of his premises and seizure of evidence had filed IT returns under block assessment admitting the undisclosed income and come forward to pay IT.
On payment of tax, the liability for non-payment of tax gets absolved. But it does not purify the source of income if it is tainted one. It is found that the said admitted undisclosed income of both exceeds far and above the known legitimate source. Through documentary and ocular evidence, the prosecution has proved the guilt of the accused to the core”, the judge added.
