KGB kin amassed illegal wealth: I-T Dept

The Income Tax Department on Saturday informed that three close relatives of former Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan had amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. ET Lukose, Director General, I-T, Kochi told newsmen that the investigations regarding this were in the final stages and that all the three had been questioned thoroughly.

However, he said he could not reveal whether any probe was on against Justice Balakrishnan or whether they had questioned him at this juncture. Also, the details of the findings in the case of his three relatives – sons-in-law PV Sreenjin and MJ Benny and brother KG Bhaskaran – could not be revealed, Lukose said.

He stated that the investigations against the three relatives of the former CJI could be completed soon and action would be taken on the basis of the final report. IT-Department had started a thorough probe against them some months ago after preliminary inquiries confirmed that the details they had given to the department were not matching with the assets they had been holding.

As per the department’s procedure, there was a provision to end the case by making them pay fine or it could initiate measures like prosecution, sources said. They said that a final decision on this would be taken only after detailed examinations as some serious revelations had come up during the investigation.

Sreenijin, a lawyer, had bought land and property worth at least Rs 15 crore in the past five years while the assets he owned in 2006, according to his own declarations, was worth only Rs 43,000. The IT Department had found that his claim that the money he had invested in real estate had come from the earnings he and his wife KB Sony had made through legal profession.

Justice Balakrishnan’s brother Bhaskaran had recently resigned as Special Government Pleader in the Kerala High Court after reports appeared in the media that he had bought land worth crores of rupees in Tamil Nadu and near Kochi. Similar charges had also been raised against Benny, another son-in-law of the former CJI.

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