Siddhartha was not harassed by I-T dept, says official

Income Tax Department officials on Tuesday clarified that they never harassed Coffee Day Enterprises promoter, V G Siddhartha. Instead, the department had enabled him to sell his shares in Mindtree as per his wish, a senior officer of Income Tax told DH.

"We had searched documents pertaining to his properties and sources of income. But he was not harassed by our officers," an I-T department official said.

He said Siddhartha had declared the huge amount of property. An investigation was conducted by the department in this regard.

"There is absolutely no truth that I-T Department had harassed Siddhartha as alleged by him in his letter," the Income Tax official said.

The income tax department had cooperated with Siddhartha during the investigation and had released his shares held in Mindtree and attached some other properties suggested by him, the official said. The I-T department extended all possible help to Siddhartha under the provisions of law, he added.