The bail plea by the wife of an Ex-income Tax Commissioner was rejected by the Jharkhand High Court in a case relating to disproportionate assets. The bail applicant was in custody since 07 December 2022 for the alleged commission of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code.
Ruparna Dutta, the wife of former Chief Income Tax Commissioner Tapas Dutta, had surrendered before the CBI court in Ranchi in connection with a disproportionate assets and corruption case. Her husband was arrested by the CBI in 2017 while accepting a bribe, and the CBI subsequently named Rupan Dutta, along with businessmen Vishwanath Agarwal and Santosh Kumar Shah, as accused in the corruption case.
The CBI had filed a charge sheet against all four in February 2022, and Rupan Dutta had filed an anticipatory bail petition with the Supreme Court, which was rejected. She had filed a bail petition upon surrendering to the CBI court but was sent to judicial custody at Birsa Munda Central jail the same day.
The former Chief Income Tax Commissioner was accused of amassing disproportionate assets of INR 9.78 crore and taking bribes from five businessmen, and the CBI has charged him and his wife with conspiring to launder black money through a shell company and legalize illegally acquired property.
The Petitioner Counsel Mokhtar Khan and Niranjan Kumar submitted that “principal accused Tapas Kumar Dutta, who has been granted default bail and the charge sheet has been submitted. Thereafter, another co-accused Santosh Kumar Shah has been granted bail by Hon’ble Supreme Court considering the default bail granted to the principal accused. This petitioner is not named in the F.I.R. and has been roped in the case only for being the wife of the principal accused.”
“Petitioner is an old ailing lady. She has multiple issues having respiratory problems and Arthritis”, the representatives further submitted.
On behalf of the CBI, P.A.S. Pati submitted that during the investigation huge property had been seized which was disproportionate to her known source of income, although she was a housewife and no tax return was filed. It is submitted that the petitioner had several joint bank accounts with her husband Tapas Kumar Dutta, 45 mutual fund investments and a number of LIC policies.
“There were a total of four lockers in the name of this petitioner and her husband from which jewellery weighing 1623.620 gm. worth Rs.46,72,801/- and jewellery weighing 5931.780 gms. having a value of Rs.1,72,78,730/- were seized from the house of Tapas Kumar Dutta.
The petitioner is the wife of the principal accused and the huge movable and immovable property has been found in her name which was disproportionate to her known source of income”, the Jharkhand High Court Single Bench observed.
The bench of Justice Gautam Kumar Choudhary of Jharkhand High Court thus rejected the bail plea of the petitioner.
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