Signature on papers not BSY’s, says CBDT

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Friday refuted media reports that the signature on the papers was that of B S Yeddyurappa and quoted the BJP leader as saying that “he was not in the habit of writing a diary and that the loose sheets in question were not in his handwriting.”

“A search was carried out on D K Shivakumar and Group on August 2, 2017 by the Income Tax Investigation, Directorate of Karnataka and Goa. During the search, some loose papers were given to the raiding party. They were a xerox copy of Karnataka Legislative Assembly legislator’s diary pages of 2009, with details of numerical entries against some individual names. The original of these documents was never given,” the CBDT said.

“Shivakumar in a statement to the tax department stated that these were
a copy of the diary, written by Yeddyurappa, and the payments made on behalf of Yeddyurappa to legislators and received from various leaders, MLAs, ministers when they were in power,” it said.

“The said seized material and the statements of Shivakumar were confronted to Yeddyurappa in October 2017. He stated that he was not in the habit of writing a diary and that the loose sheets in question were not in his handwriting.

“He denied his handwriting and signatures on the loose sheets. Also, as the handwriting did not belong to him, he cannot have any knowledge about the contents of the said loose sheets,” the CBDT said in a statement.

He further stated that the contents of the loose sheets were false and fabricated and his name had been used to malign his political career, the agency said.

“He also provided a sample of his handwriting in order to verify the genuineness of the said loose sheets. Further, he also stated that the fabricated loose sheets were politically motivated with an intention to tarnish his political image,” it said.