While her husband Jai Mehta is under scrutiny for alleged financial irregularities in the Indian Premier League (IPL), actor Juhi Chawla recently turned a lot of heads when she was invited as a honorary guest to a function organised by the Income Tax (I-T) department to celebrate 150 years of its inception at Patkar Hall. Mehta and his wife Chawla are co-owners of Kolkata Knight Riders, along with actor Shah Rukh Khan.
The other Bollywood personalities present at the function were Shekhar Suman, and Himesh Resammiya and Abhijit Sawant.
Senior I-T officials, however, deny any wrongdoing in inviting Chawla. “Initially, we too felt it would be wrong to invite her during an ongoing inquiry. But, two reasons prevailed over our speculation. One, she has no role to play in the IPL. Her stake in KKR, which now lies in her husband’s name, is clearly explained,” said a senior officer, refuting allegations of impropriety.
“Secondly, not many people know that she is the daughter of an I-T employee, a class II officer who retired in 1987. Hence, she is a part of the I-T department family.
This, coupled with the fact that she is a known public personality and a tax payer, made us invite her for the function,” the officer added.
Meanwhile, the department has again asked Mehta to share the source of money in Mauritius through whom he invested in the team. Alluding to Mehta, the authorities said they were planning to trace the source of the funds or the route through which he invested his share.
The I-T department is investigating all the teams that have routed money through Malaysia.
Interestingly, while Khan has claimed that Mehta and Chawla were in the venture from the beginning, I-T officials say they have evidence to prove that Mehta came into the picture only in 2009.
The agency is ascertaining why Mehta’s name was mentioned as an owner when he was not a part of the team ownership.
