I-T dept probing Gadkari’s ‘shell’ firms: report

Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari, the latest politician to be in the midst of corruption allegations, now faces a probe by the Income Tax department into allegations of dubious funding of his companies. The ministry of corporate affairs has already begun a probe.

"We will trace the source the funds of the companies, including the 18 companies that invested in Purti," PTI quoted a top I-T official in Mumbai as saying.

The official said, prima facie, shell companies (used mainly for the laundering and diversion of illegitimate funds) had pumped money into Gadkari's Purti Power and Sugar Ltd; and a report would be submitted to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) shortly.

"We have already started gathering documents relating to these companies," the sources told PTI, adding that officials in the investigation wing of the department in Mumbai and Pune were involved in the probe.

Officials of the investing companies would be summoned in due course, and if needed, the BJP chief would also be asked to be present, the sources said.

Gadkari, meanwhile, cancelled his scheduled trip to Delhi with his personal staff in Nagpur saying he was indisposed.

He is at the centre of a controversy over the funding of Purti, with media reports and 'exposes' claiming that major investments and large loans were made to the company by the Ideal Road Builders (IRB) group, which had won a number of contracts between 1995 and 1999 when the BJP chief was the Public Works Department minister in Maharashtra.