IT dept. asked to probe flow of funds to Siddarth Verma

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 22. The Central Bureau of Investigation has reportedly asked the Income Tax Department to probe the flow of funds to Mr. Siddarth Verma, son of the suspended Chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs, Mr. B.P. Verma.

According to CBI sources, the Income Tax authorities had been asked to investigate the account books of all the companies launched by Mr. Siddarth Verma, and scrutinise the annual returns filed by them.

The agency's anti-corruption branch, which is handling the case, has also asked the I.T. Department to look into the circumstances under which the companies were floated. The aim of the exercise is to find out whether the ex-CBEC Chairman and his son were involved in any money laundering business by floating a string of these companies, the sources said.

The CBI has also roped in the income tax authorities to investigate the ``disproportionate assets'' of Mr. B.P. Verma. The agency has registered a disproportionate assets case

against Mr. verma, after charging him with criminal conspiracy and misuse of official position for personal gains.

The CBI, the sources said, would provide details of the documents seized during the March 31 raid on the assets of Mr. Verma to the I.T. authorities, so that they could be tallied with the returns filed by him.

Interrogation of persons arrested in the case had given the agency some leads which were being further pursued, the sources added. In all, seven persons have been arrested, including Mr. Verma, his son, Ms. Bhavna Pandey, an alleged conduit of Mr.Verma, and Mr. Shravan Kumar, partner of m/s A.K. Enterprise which allegedly paid bribe to the suspended Chairman to get its consignments released.

The arrested also include Mr. K. Vijay Pratap, a middleman who allegedly paid bribe on behalf of Mr. Shravan Kumar to Mr. Verma's son, Mr. Rajeev Kumar, manager of firms owned by Mr. Siddarth Verma, and Mr. Mohan Gupta, who had allegedly helped Mr. Verma in acquiring benami properties.

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