HC gives I-T dept custody of unaccounted stolen cash recovered by cops
Gujarat high court
permitted the income tax (I-T) department to have custody of stolen cash, which was recovered by the police, instead of depositing the amount in the owner's name after the owner could not satisfactorily explain the source of his income.
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According to the case details, Pritesh Patel filed an FIR with the Prantij police in Sabarkantha district on Feb 2, 2022, regarding the theft of gold and silver worth Rs 90,000 from his house. Later that month, he revealed to the police that his passport and Rs 1.40 crore cash were also stolen.
The police launched a probe and recovered part of the stolen cash. While investigating the case, the police inspector informed the I-T department about the theft of such a huge amount of cash and its partial recovery.
The recovered cash — Rs 35.28 lakh — was lying with a local magisterial court as muddamal (evidence).
Meanwhile, Patel settled the dispute with the accused in this case, and they requested the HC to quash the FIR, which was accordingly quashed in May 2022.
On the other hand, the I-T department inquired with Patel about the source of the stolen amount, and he reportedly failed to explain the source of Rs 35.28 lakh. In the absence of any explanation from Patel, the I-T department initiated the process of requisitioning the cash from the investigating officer to undertake required proceedings under the provisions of the Income Tax Act for
tax evasion
.
The police officer redirected the I-T department to the court, in whose custody the cash was lying.
The I-T department approached the court, which permitted it to take action but ordered the cash to be fixed-deposited in Patel's name. The department filed a petition in the HC in 2024, submitting that the provisions of law do not permit it to keep such an amount as an fixed deposit (FD) in the name of the owner, who is under scrutiny for tax evasion.
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The I-T department cited an earlier order by a division bench allowing it to keep such unaccounted cash in a Personal Deposit account.
After the hearing, Justice D A Joshi quashed the lower court's order and directed the police officer to hand over the cash to the I-T department. The HC further said, "It is clarified that prior to handing over the muddamal currency notes, if necessary, the investigating officer shall carry out the panchnama with the serial numbers of the currency notes, if not already done."
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