BMC CHIEF CHAHAL UNDER IT RADAR AFTER RAIDS ON STANDING COMMITTEE EX-CHAIRMAN

Mumbai: A high profile and a corona control expert, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal was summoned by the Income Tax department recently in connection with the search and seizure operations conducted upon the civic body’s former Standing Committee chairman Yaswanth Kamlakar Jadhav by officials attached to the office of the Director General (Investigations). The Deputy Director’s office located at Scindia House at Ballard Pier in south Mumbai had issued the summons to Chahal to appear before its office on March 10, 2022. According to a senior IT official, “Following the seizures of documents and other leads we had sought data from the BMC in the form of documents pertaining to road and other civic contracts executed between 2018 and 2021. Summons were issued to the BMC Chief to appear before the department in the same matter.” The civic body had sought time to submit the sought documents and other details. Investigations are believed to have led IT sleuths on the trail of benami transactions, particularly with road contractors, with some alleged payments being linked to the civic chief as well.

Chahal, who recently earned kudos over his corona management in Mumbai city, is a high profile IAS officer in Maharashtra bureaucracy and is considered close to the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray