Vijyender Sharma
SHIMLA---Apples being Transported on Scooters and Maruti 800 cars to a Mandi from Orchards of Virbhadra Singh ,like this several irregularities was found by the Income Tax Department during the investigation of DA case and unbelievable bumper yield of apple crop by attributing it to 'God's benevolence'.
The I-T probe found that the sale of apples from Singh's Shrikhand orchard in Shimla district could not have fetched him more than Rs 64 lakh as against Rs 1.55 crore he showed in 2011 when the sleuths first detected the rise in his apple orchard manager Anand Chauhan's income. TOI is in possession of the I-T assessment order, dated March 18, 2014, based on the probe and interrogation of Virbhadra and Chauhan, which makes these revelations.
The I-T department, while quoting the state horticulture department, confronted both Singh and Chauhan, saying that only 191 tonnes of apples could have been obtained from his 105 bighas orchard in Shimla in 2011 and that the yield's corresponding market price could not be more than Rs 64 lakh.
In his reply to the I-T department, Chauhan said: "The production of apple is wholly depending upon the weather conditions and mercy of the God." The assessment order cited two cases of the region's biggest apple growers who could not fetch even one-third of the money Singh received for his crop in 2011, even though those were grown on much bigger piece of land. While one Kanwar Uday Singh of Woodville Palace in Shimla received Rs 22.74 lakh from 237 bighas of apple orchards, Anil Stokes of Barobagh village in Shimla district earned Rs 30.72 lakh from 300 bighas.
Interestingly, Singh first declared his agricultural income from apples at Rs 25 lakh for 2010-11, but later revised it to Rs 1.55 crore.
I-T sleuths also discovered that 18 vehicles, including scooters, tippers, oil tankers and motorcycles were shown as modes of transport to ferry apples worth Rs 6.5 crore between 2008 and 2012. These included four Tata Motor tippers, one Tata Motor oil tanker, two Bajaj Auto scooters, three Maruti Suzuki 800 cars, one Honda motorcycle and one Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle.
"Being a tipper/oil tanker/scooter these vehicles were not in a position to be utilised for carrying the apples," said the assessment order. I-T sleuths also discovered that the Parwanoo fruit mandi in Solan district, which Singh's transporters had shown as one of the destinations for apples, was not even functional in 2008. Singh had shown that apples were transported from his orchard to Parwanoo fruit market in Sector 6. There, the apples were sold to a firm Universal Apple Associates (UAA), owned by one Chunni Lal, whose name has also been included in CBI's FIR.
"The statement given by Dinesh Kumar Sood, owner of three tippers, is not correct as he has admitted that the apples were transported from Rampur to Parwanoo Fruit Mandi in FY 2008-09 and prior, where this mandi was not even in operation that year due to the ongoing four-laning of NH-22 (that is Chandigarh to Parwanoo)," the assessment order said. In 2008-09, when Parwanoo mandi was not operational, Virbhadra had first showed his apple income as Rs 7.35 lakh but later revised it to Rs 2.21 crore. The overall revision of agricultural income for three years by him was Rs 6.5 crore from just Rs 47.5 lakh.
While probing the Rs 6.5 crore money trail between Singh, Chauhan and Chunni Lal, I-T also found that even the addresses where these apples were further sent by UAA are either incomplete or do not exist. These addresses belong to 13 unknown companies spread across Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal and Kerala.
"The bills issued by Universal Apple Associates in respect of alleged purchase of apple crop of Shrikhand orchard are not in serial numbers and seem to be very unusual and doubtful. No satisfactory explanation has been offered either by the assessees or UAA," I-T stated in its probe.
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