Uttarakhand jeweller gets 2 years jail term for stashing money in Swiss bank

Dehradun: A court here has sentenced a city jeweller to two years' rigorous imprisonment for stashing away unaccounted money in the Swiss bank.

Chief Judicial Magistrate (economic offences) Vivek Dwiwedi handed the sentence to owner of Punjab Jewellers Raju Verma yesterday after holding him guilty of not showing money stashed away in the Swiss bank in his Income Tax returns.

He also slapped a fine of Rs 8 lakh on the jeweller, senior counsel of I-T department S M Jain said.

In his order, the CJM said the jeweller deposited Rs 92 lakh in the Swiss Bank in 1996 but did not show it in his ITR files.

The vigilance cell of the Income Tax department had detected the fraud during raids conducted at the jewellery outlet in year 2012, the IT department senior lawyer said.

Sixteen cases were lodged against Verma and court proceedings initiated against him in 2015.

The trial was completed in a record two years time and quantum of sentence pronounced, the senior counsel claimed.

It is the first case of black money anywhere in the country where hearings have been concluded and quantum of sentence pronounced within two years, he further claimed.