Best Bakery case: IT sleuths grill Srivastava brothers

Vadodara, Apr 21: The Income Tax deparment here has grilled controversial BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava and his cousin and Congress Corporator Chandrakant, who are suspected to have had bribed Best Bakery case prime witness Zaheera Sheikh to turn hostile.

The IT department here is investigating into Zaheera's source of income since 2000, as per the Supreme Court's directive.

The department has also reportedly taken into possession all documents pertaining to the bank accounts, hotel and other assets of the duo in and outside Vadodara.

Mr Madhu Srivastava told UNI today that IT sleuths did visit his Waghodia residence recently in connection with the Zaheera case, and he had extended all cooperation to them.

Rejecting Tehelka's sting operation showing him admitting that Zaheera was paid Rs 18 lakh to turn hostile before the Vadodara Fast Track court, Mr Srivastava said, ''I have provided them details of my annual income tax returns along with list of properties and other assets for scrutiny. Let the IT department find out the truth.'' When contacted, Mr Chandrakant Srivastava said he was also issued a notice by the IT department and had complied with it.

The Supreme Court, while awarding Zaheera one-year imprisonment and Rs 50,000 fine for contempt of court on March 8, had directed the Commissioner of Income Tax, Vadodara to attach the assets and bank accounts of the convict and initiate an inquiry about her sources of income from 2000.

Though the division bench had held that there was no concrete evidence against the Srivastava brothers regarding the payment of money to Zaheera, it had given liberty to the IT authorities to inquire into the alleged sting operation.

UNI

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