Income Tax dept attaches Syed Ali Shah Geelani's Delhi properties on wilful tax evasion charges

The department also prohibits the Hurriyat Conference leader from transferring the property.

ANI photo

New Delhi: The Income-Tax Department on Monday attached a property belonging to Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Delhi's Malviya Nagar in connection with an over Rs 3.62 crore tax evasion case against him.

The flat is located in Khirki Extension area of Malviya Nagar. 

The Tax Recovery Officer (TRO) sealed the house as Geelani failed to pay the income tax amounting to Rs Rs 3.62 crore for assessment years 1996-97 to 2001-02, as per an order accessed by PTI. The department also prohibited and restrained the Hurriyat Conference leader from transferring the property. 

The TRO is an enforcement action taking arm of the tax department and it deals with cases of wilful defaulters. The authority is empowered to attach an asset and subsequently auction it to release the tax dues.

Only last month, in March, the Enforcement Directorate levied a penalty of Rs 14.40 lakh in a 17-year-old case on Geelani under the Foreign Exchange Management Act for illegally possessing foreign exchange of 10,000 US Dollars. In 2017 also, the probe agency had summoned the 87-year-old Separatist leader Geelani for allegedly possessing foreign exchange to the tune of 10,000 US Dollars illegally.