IT dept, Vadodara attaches Zahira Sheikh's assets

Mumbai, June 9: A total of eight assets, including bank accounts of Zahira Sheikh, the eyewitness turned accused in the infamous Best Bakery case, have been attached by Income Tax (IT) department, Vadodara, her counsel Umesh Deshpande told UNI here today.

The attached assets include three accounts in Syndicate bank, Bhayandar, two unknown bank accounts, a house in Ekta Nagar, another flat in Mumbai and two small plots measuring of 15 x 30 ft, each in the name of her brother Nasibullah.

According to Mr Deshpande, the IT department had sent notices to Zahira and her family under section 148 of the Income Tax Act, two months back seeking returns for 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Ironically, the IT notices received by Zahira on April 12 this year had to be submitted by April 15, which gave no time to Zahira.

Mr Deshpande said upon receiving the notices, he had sent letters to IT department requesting more time to collect relevant details, as Zahira and several other members in her family were serving their prison sentences.

On the contrary, the IT department sent an attachment notice under Section 281 B of the Income Tax Act, 1961, last week, putting her properties under provisional attachment.

Mr Deshpande pointed out that the list of properties under provisional attachment were incorrect, as there was no proper verification conducted by IT authorities to ascertain her known returns.

He said their opinion is being sought from a Chartered Accountant (CA) in Vadodara on Zahira's property and a genuine assessment and returns document will be filed shortly, requesting the provisional attachment order to be quashed.

He said, ''We are not worried about the attachment, as her (Zahira) assets were not mismatching the earnings of the Sheikh family. This is an attempt to break our spirits and push us into the black books of the society.'' Earlier, the Supreme Court, taking a serious note of a false affidavit filed for the second time, sentenced Zahira to one-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on her for changing her statements on several occasions during the retrial of the case.

Zahira, has, however, completed three months of the one-year imprisonment.

UNI