Sushil Chandra, the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) — a statutory authority — has come under fire. According to a report in the Economic Times on January 27, Chandra’s brother-in-law, businessman Arvind Goel, a real estate developer, has been accused by the Uttar Pradesh government of allegedly buying and selling close to 200 acres of land parcels in Moradabad. These transactions took place between 2004 and 2017, and are suspected to have been made through black money.
The report says that Arvind Goel and his brother Vipin Goel allegedly bought large tracts of land through 20 companies. According to the government, many of these firms are shell companies — they reportedly do not have proper addresses, and some were registered on a single address. As per the initial investigation, the transactions took place through 57 sale deeds and 37 power of attorneys, and all dealings displayed a lot of irregularity in payment of stamp duty.
What is curious, however, is that while more than a year ago, on December 1, 2017, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered an investigation by a special investigation team (SIT), a second order was reportedly issued the following week asking the SIT to maintain “status quo”. As per file notings of Special Secretary in CM’s office, ET reported, the change was made on the basis of Arvind Goel’s representation saying the probe against him would amount to “mental harassment”.
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The Wire reported that the Congress has levelled accusations of stalling the case against the Bharatiya Janata Party government, both in the state of Uttar Pradesh and at the Centre. According to the Congress, the BJP government halted the black money probe because Sushil Chandra is seen to be close to the ruling regime — he was given an extension of two terms by the Narendra Modi government.
At a press meet in New Delhi on January 28, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, “We want to ask this question to the prime minister, the chief minister and the interim union finance minister: Was this probe withdrawn because he (Goel) happens to be a close relative of the CBDT chairman? As you all know, he has been given unprecedented extensions by the NDA/BJP government. We want to ask the prime minister, is that reflective of your commitment to weed out black money?”
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Tewari further added, “The then state principal secretary in charge of food security and drug administration felt that probe by multiple agencies such as the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) are carried out to look into the matter. As such a demand came from within the government; the CM ordered a SIT probe on December 1, 2017. However, on December 6, 2017, it was stopped citing mental harassment to Goel. I want to ask, since when has the BJP, which had done a PhD in mental harassment, has become sensitive to it.”
Chandra, speaking to ET, said he had “nothing to do” with either the case or Arvind Goel: “Keep me out of it. I have nothing to do with it. But for him being my relative, I don’t even have a relationship with him.”