Ex-CJI’s kin have black money: I-T

Thiruvananthapuram: The incometax department on Saturday claimed three relatives of former chief justice K G Balakrishnan possessed ‘black money’. Director general of I-T (investigation) E T Lukose did not identify them while speaking to reporters at Kochi. When pressed for names, he said: “It is known to you all.”
I-T sources said the department was probing allegations that Balakrishnan’s brother K G Bhaskaran and sons-in-law P V Sreenijan and M J Benny had acquired assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. Bhaskaran, who was a special government pleader in the Kerala high court, went on leave soon after the charges broke. Lukose also refused to give details of the sums involved. He wouldn’t say if it was in the form of cash or invested in movable or immovable property. But he added that most of this ‘money’ was accumulated in the last five years.
The officer said the department had questioned some relatives of Balakrishnan, who is chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, and added that they would be quizzed again. He declined to reply when asked if the department had sought answers from the former CJI too.
Once the investigation is complete, the report will be passed to the assessment wing which, in turn, will decide whether to levy penalty or initiate prosecution, he stated. The revelations come a week after the I-T department rejected an RTI plea seeking details of Balakrishnan’s tax returns from 2005-2006 to 2009-2010. He was CJI from 2007-2010, before which he was the chief justice of the Kerala HC.