SETHNA PAID FOR SHAH’S AIR TICKETS

I did it for commission, says Gujarat businessman who disclosed Rs 13,860 crore black money

Tehmul Sethna, the chartered accountant (CA) of Mahesh Shah who resurfaced on Saturday, claimed that the latter will reveal the name of “one big fish” whose money was part of the Rs 13,860 crore he disclosed in IDS form. Sethna is the senior-most partner in Apaji Amin & Co, a chartered accountant firm. Sethna also added that despite being just a matriculate, Shah was extremely intelligent According to him, “Shah may have risen from a brick-and-mortar background but has it in him to even become a chief minister. He is a very brave man and I was always sure that he would turn up. He loves his family and I had expected that he would come to the fore when he feels that his family is suffering because of him. He also has immense respect for me and I am glad that he has exonerated me and my firm from all the false allegations that were being made against us.”Sethna also revealed other financial dealings he had with Shah. He said, “I knew Shah for a long time and many a time even accompanied him to Mumbai. I have not received a rupee in consultation fee from him and have, in fact, spent a lot of money on him, sometimes even on his air tickets. I have incurred a loss and on top of that there is this added headache of media frenzy.”Sethna claimed that though Shah had the choice of splitting the disclosure using multiple IDS (Income Declaration Scheme) forms, as he would then only need to pay the tax instalments in smaller amounts, he chose to declare it all in one-go on a single form.Sethna revealed that the I-T department had also seized several servers containing digital data of numerous years in the raids conducted at his office while he had earlier maintained that only Rs 29,000 in cash and some papers were taken away. He also told Mirror that in mid-November I-T officials called him up directly instead of Shah and kept asking him to ensure that Shah paid his tax instalment at the earliest.