'I did not violate any bond norms'

Team Anna on Friday said the Income Tax (I-T) department issued a notice to its core committee member, Arvind Kejriwal, for the recovery of around Rs9 lakh dues from him, under government's pressure.

Team Anna on Friday said the Income Tax (I-T) department issued a notice to its core committee member, Arvind Kejriwal, for the recovery of around Rs9 lakh dues from him, under government's pressure.

The Centre denied the allegation and said the notice was a "routine departmental affair."

Team Anna members, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi along with Kejriwal, addressed a press conference and termed the I-T notice as continuation of the smear campaign against them.

"The government has not learnt any lesson and it is back to its old tricks. It should fight us on the issues related to Lokpal, since such a campaign will only discredit it further," Bhushan said.

Kejriwal said he had not violated any service condition rules and questioned the timing of the notice sent to him. "I had resigned in February 2006, there was lots of correspondence for a year, but this was followed by complete silence from the I-T since 2007 till now," he said.

I-T department on August 5 issued a notice to Kejriwal, asking him to clear the dues totalling Rs9.27 lakh, alleging he had violated the bond clauses under which he went for a study leave.

"It is being wrongly interpreted that I violated service bond conditions and therefore I should return the salary with interest for the period of the study leave. The fact is that I remained in service for three years after returning from paid study leave," Kejriwal said.

The Magsaysay award winner said he had donated the award money towards charity and has repeatedly told the I-T department to use his provident fund amount to settle the dues.

Prashant Bhushan said a systematic campaign was going on against them. "There is a notice against Arvind. Delhi Police has closed the investigations in the CD case saying the disc was genuine. There is also a privilege notice against Bedi," he said.

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