Gutkha baron Jagdish Joshi gets tax relief

In a tax relief to Jagdish Joshi, owner of Goa Gutka, the Bombay High Court has rejected the appeal of Income Tax (I-T) department challenging an order of the I-T tribunal, directing the assessing officer to delete an amount of Rs 11 crore from his income. The amount, the department claimed, was made on account of business receipts from competitor, Raisklal Dhariwal of Manickchand group, during the assessment year 2000-2001. Dhariwal and Joshi were business partners until 1995 when Joshi left to start his own company. It is alleged that Joshi demanded an amount as his share for having contributed to the growth of the company, but Dhariwal refused to pay up.

In 1999, it is alleged that Joshi approached gangster Anees Ibrahim to help him get the money from Dhariwal. The trio met in Dubai, but Dhariwal refused to pay. Then, they were summoned to Karachi to meet Dawood Ibrahim, who finally settled the dispute for `11 crore.

The court after going through the facts of the case held that "That it is alleged in the confessional statment of an accused" that dhariwal and joshi were partners etc. Present assessee has received amount from Dhariwal that is the statement of an accused in MCOCA case, the statement has not been confronted to the assessee to verify whether the amount was actually paid to the assesse. It is further observed that no corroborative evidence has been produced to substantiate the fact of alleged payment.