Romesh Sharma gets 2 years in jail

Sharma, an alleged frontman of Dawood Ibrahim, has been punished for evading income tax and not paying dues amounting to Rs 50 cr.

Romesh Sharma, an alleged frontman of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was today sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment by a court in New Delhi for evading income tax and not paying dues amounting to Rs 50 crore in a 12-year-old case.

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"Keeping in view the fact and circumstances of the case. I sentence Romesh Sharma to two years RI for evading taxes," Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kanwaljeet Arora said, slapping a penalty of Rs three lakh on him.

The court convicted Sharma, from whose farmhouse I-T officials recovered a helicopter apart from cash, for not depositing dues amounting to Rs 50 crores after holding him guilty under section 276-C(2) and 277 of the Income Tax Act.

On March 28, the court had heard the arguments on the quantum of sentence and reserved its order for today.

After the sentence, Sharma's counsel Harish Singh told PTI that "he would appeal in a higher court against his client's sentence."