It’s almost like oiling the whip to bring the incorrigible to book.
In a unique and first time effort in Karnataka, the Income Tax department (Karnataka Circle) and the Lokayukta have decided to come together to share information and work in tandem to probe into “illegal assets and disproportionate” income of government officials in the State, including the 13 officials, who were raided recently by the Lokayukta police.
On Wednesday, in an informal meeting, the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax-III, Karnataka, Durgesh Shankar, along with Commissioner, Salary Circle, Bangalore, Neeraj Bansal met with the Lokayukta, Justice Santosh N Hegde at his office and agreed to share information and mutually help each other in probing into the illegal assets and disproportionate income of government officials.
Raids
“We conduct raids on corrupt government officials under the Prevention of Corruption Act, to search, survey and seize any ill-gotten wealth and to probe into the sources of income. The Income Tax department also conducts raids, not only on government servants but also private individuals and organisations, under the Income Tax Act. Since our objectives are the same, we have decided to work together in gathering and sharing of information through our Intelligence sources,” said Justice Hegde.
“Between us, we have a lot of areas of common interest. The Income Tax department has a wider network and ambit. They may have information on officials with suspect integrity. Similarly, we may have some information regarding some officials and others, which we can share with them. Together, we will be able to do much better work, within the ambit of law and our respective jurisdictions,” he said.
Justice Hegde said that he will seek information about the 13 officials, whose premises were raided on November 3 this year, from the Income Tax department.
“Intelligence gathering is an extremely difficult and time consuming job. Even after the raid, we have to go through a lot of work; cross verify the details, examine witnesses and check the veracity of records, which are often undervalued for obvious reasons. Many times the transactions are benami, which also have to be verified. Sharing of Intelligence between the two departments, is not only going to be mutually beneficial, it will also work as a strong deterrent to law evaders,” said Hegde.
He hoped that if other institutions with the similar objective, extend co-operation to the Lokayukta, there would be a greater impact on minimising corruption.
Though there’s no written agreement between the Lokayukta and the Income Tax department on the issue, they have decided to go ahead with the new alliance, to crack the whip at the “corrupt and lawless” with a view to cleaning the system.