A real estate group chief was today granted bail by a Delhi court after he appeared before it following summons issued against him for allegedly not disclosing details of his Swiss bank account in Geneva to the Income Tax (IT) Department.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Devendra Kumar Sharma released Manish Periwal, CMD of Pioneer Urban Land and Infrastructure Ltd, on bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of the same amount.
The court also directed him not to leave the country without its prior permission.
It had earlier summoned Periwal as an accused in the case after taking cognizance of the IT department's complaint and had directed him to appear before it today.
The court had taken cognisance of IT Department's complaint that it possessed information that Periwal had an account with HSBC Bank in Geneva showing a balance of USD 56,071.78 (now Rs 34,96,072.68).
"The complaint and documents annexed with it disclose sufficient material on record regarding commission of offence under Section 276D (failure to produce accounts and documents) of the IT Act for assessment year 2007-08. Hence, cognisance of offence is taken," the court had said.
A search was conducted at Periwal's residence and office premises in January 2012 and his statement was recorded in which he admitted having an account in the Geneva bank, the complaint said.
It claimed Periwal was asked to furnish his account statement for completion of assessment and to arrive at his true taxable income. However, the details submitted by him were not sufficient to come to a conclusion, it had said.
Five notices were issued to him by the department and he only replied to a show cause notice on January 9 this year that he did not have the details or statements of the foreign bank account, the complaint said, adding that the explanation given by Periwal was not acceptable.
The complaint also alleged that Periwal wilfully failed to furnish the statement of bank account from date of opening it till the date of notice to ascertain the exact transactions and the amount for the relevant assessment year to estimate the exact undisclosed income in foreign bank account.
It said Periwal has surrendered the amount kept in the foreign bank account to the IT Department. A notice was also issued to him for launch of prosecution against him but he gave an "unsatisfactory" reply, it added.
