New Delhi, Sept 2: The Income Tax department has sent a notice to Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal asking him to pay dues of more than Rs 9 lakh to the government, the Times of India reported.
Kejriwal will place his side of the case at a press conference on Friday at 4 pm in Delhi.
The I-T department says, though Kejriwal had resigned five years back in 2006, it has still not accepted his resignation. So, technically, in the government's view, Kejriwal is still a government servant.
Kejriwal had given his resignation from Indian Revenue Service in February 2006. The notice says Kejriwal has violated bond conditions. His resignation, according to the government, can only be accepted once the dues are cleared.
Kejriwal has denied this contention saying he had not violated any conditions and questioned the timing of the notice which he said was being hastily pursued after a lull of over two years.
In a reply submitted on Thursday to the department, Kejriwal said he had not violated any bond conditions. He said the bond he signed only said that he should not resign or retire during the period of study leave, stressing that he had not violated either of the conditions.
The I-T department has accused Kejriwal of not returning to government service after the sanctioned study leave. It has demanded that he return two years' salary amounting to Rs 3.50 lakh and interest accumulated so far of Rs 4.16 lakh. Kejriwal had also taken a computer loan of which Rs 50,000 was due and interest accumulated amounted to Rs 1 lakh.
In his reply, Kejriwal said, "I wish to state I have not violated any bond condition... The bond says that I will have to pay the penalty... in the event of my failing to resume duty or resigning or retiring from service or quitting service without returning to duty after the expiry or termination of period of study leave or failing to complete the course of study at any time within period of 3 years after my return from duty."
Kejriwal said he took study leave from November 1, 2000 to October 31, 2002 and joined back work on November 1, 2002. "I completed three years in October 1, 2005 and I resigned only in February 2006. There is no question of my violating any bond conditions," he said. He was on unpaid leave between 2004-2006.
He also said that communications had been sent to the I-T department asking it to cut the computer loan amount pending against his GPF. "I have in my correspondence to the department attached copies of my bank statements clarifying that I have no money and the dues can be recovered from my GPF. I have not violated any bond conditions but even if I have, the department has the power to waive off the dues as I have been working in public interest," he said.
