The Income Tax department filed 12 complaint petitions before Chief Judicial Magistrate, N. Muralidharan, in Coimbatore on Friday, seeking action against three persons for alleged evasion of Income tax to the tune of more than Rs. 22 crore, over a period of two to seven years.

The complaint petitions filed by Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) for Income Tax V. Vijayakumar states that a city-based industrialist who is in the travel business has not paid IT to the tune of more than Rs. 20 crore over a period of seven years despite notices served to him by the department.

Petitions were also filed against a Chartered Accountant for evading tax of about Rs. 1.4 crore over a period of three years and against a realtor for evading tax payment of Rs. 95.9 lakh.

It is learnt that the tax evasion was found out after studying transactions made by the above said persons.

Sources said that the petitions would be dropped without initiating further course of action if the assesses paid the tax. They could face imprisonment of three months to three years if the charges against them were proved – in addition to paying fines for the evasion. (The Hindu)