Jazzy B detained with Rs 5 lakh at airport, released after 12 hours
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 25
Income Tax officials seized Rs 5 lakh unaccounted-for cash recovered from Punjabi singer and actor Jaswinder Singh Bains, famous as Jazzy B, at the Chandigarh international airport. He was detained and released after around 12 hours of interrogation at the airport late on Wednesday night.
Income Tax Department officials said the singer failed to reveal the source of the money and whether TDS was deducted on it. He told the officials that he got the money from an individual. The person, however, claimed that he had given the payment to someone else, not the singer. Thus, the Income Tax officials seized the currency.
Sources said Income Tax sleuths had a tip-off that Jazzy B would be reaching Chandigarh at 1.30 pm on Wednesday from Delhi on a GoAir flight with a large amount of money. Following this, a team, led by Manveet Singh Sehgal, Deputy Director (Investigation), under the supervision of Zeenia Handa, Joint Deputy Director (Investigation), rushed to the spot.
The team caught the singer and on search, recovered around Rs 5 lakh from him.
The sleuths carried the search and seizure procedure under Section 132 of the Income Tax Act.
“Normally, singers carry along a large amount of money they get it for some show or event. But we wanted to know whether TDS was deducted on the amount and was he showing it in his Income Tax return. We released him at around midnight. He will be called for questioning again as we have started an investigation to find out whether the currency seized was black money,” a senior Income Tax official told The Tribune.
