ALWAR: A 52-year-old farmer’s ignorance of tax laws landed him in prison after he failed to pay the dues to the tune of Rs 22 lakh.Rohitash Singh, a resident of Kamalpur village under Ramgarh tehsil in Alwar was arrested by the local police as per the directions of the income tax department.The officials said that Singh was allotted Rs 46 lakh as a compensation for government’s acquisition of his land. He later distributed the money between his brothers through cheques following , the income tax department sent him a notice. Failing to respond to the notice, the IT department declared that he had tax dues of Rs 22.67 lakh. The IT officials claimed they sent him several notice to this effect.The initial investigation indicates that in 2011, the government had acquired several beegha of lands from the farmers for local industrial development projects. Singh was one of the many farmers who were compensated for the acquisition; he however gave all his money to his brother and opened a small shop.While the IT department kept issuing notices, Rohitash could not properly explain his case to the officials. The sources said that he had once furnished a detailed response which termed as unsatisfactory.After Rohitash was arrested on Tuesday, the farmers of the local areas alleged that it was a one sided action by the IT department as Singh id not hide his money and his only crime was his inability to understand the tax jargons.His brother Suresh said that his brother did not know English and hence could not respond to the notices; the income tax official however said that Singh was given multiple notices.“He was produced before tax recovery officer and asked to pay the dues, to which Singh said that he did not have that much of money following which he was sent to six months of prison,” the official said.

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