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TMI Blog2019 (2) TMI 1070X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d above. Even assuming that the brokers may have done some manipulation then also the assessee cannot be held liable for the illegal action of the brokers when the entire transactions have been carried out through banking channels duly recorded in the Demat accounts with a Government depository and traded on the stock exchange unless specific evidence emerges that the assessee was in hand in gloves with the broker for committing the unscrupulous activity to launder his own money in the guise of LTCG. There is also nothing on record which could suggest that the assessee gave his own cash and got cheque from the alleged brokers/buyers. The assessment is based upon some third party statements recorded behind the back of the assessee and the assessee has not been allowed to cross examine those persons by the assessee, so the statements even if adverse against the assessee cannot be relied upon by the AO to draw adverse inference against the assessee in the light of the documents to substantiate the claim of LTCG, which has not been found fault with by the AO. - Decided in favour of assessee. Disallowance of expenditure u/s. 69C - HELD THAT:- As already adjudged that the transa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al. 4. I have heard rival submissions and gone through the facts and circumstances of the case. At the time of hearing it was brought to my notice by the Ld. AR that this Tribunal in the following cases have decided that the scrips of KAFL are not bogus and held that the LTCG claim of the assessee needs to be allowed: i) Manish Kumar Baid Vs. ACIT, ITA Nos. 1236 1237/Kol/2017 dated 18.08.2017 ii) Rukmini Devi Manpria Vs. DCIT, ITA No.1724/Kol/2017 dated 24.10.2018 iii) Jagmohan Agarwal Vs. ACIT, ITA No.604/Kol/2018 dated 05.09.2018. It was also brought to our notice by the Ld. AR that AO was influenced by an interim order of SEBI dated 29.03.2016, which the SEBI has withdrawn by later order dated 21.09.2017 by virtue of it all the restrictions imposed upon by the earlier order dated 29.03.2016 has been withdrawn, since SEBI could not find any infirmity in the scrips of M/s. KAFL. So he pleaded that the claim of assessee for LTCG should be allowed. 5. On the other hand, the Ld. DR for the Revenue vehemently opposed the contentions of the assessee and took us through the AO s order and Ld. CIT(A) order and submitted that scrips of M/s. KAFL was artificially rigged ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a. We find that the SEBI s orders relied on by the ld AO and referred to him as direct evidence against the assessee did not contain the name of the assessee and/or the name of Ashika Stock Broking Ltd. through whom the assessee sold the shares of KAFL as a beneficiary to the alleged accommodation entries provided by the related entities / promoters / brokers / entry operators. In the instant case, the shares of CPAL were purchased by the assessee way back on 20.12.2011 and pursuant to merger of CPAL with KAFL, the assessee was allotted equal number of shares in KAFL, which was sold by the assessee by exiting at the most opportune moment by making good profits in roder to have a good return on his investment. We find that the assessee and / or the broker Ashita Stock Broking Ltd was not the primary allottees of shares either in CPAL or in KAFL as could be evident from the SEBI s order. We find that the SEBI order did mention the list of 246 beneficiaries of persons trading in shares of KAFL, wherein, the assessee and / or Ashita Stock Broking Ltd s name is not reflected at all. Hence the allegation that the assessee and / or Ashita Stock Broking Ltd getting involved in price riggin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l Financial Servides Ltd. registered with CDSL (DP ID No. INBO I 0901838). The said company (M/s. Panchshul Marketing Ltd.) was later merged with M/s. Kailash Auto Finance Ltd. as per an order of the Hon ble High Court of Allahabad dated 09.05.2013 and consequent to merger, the assessee had received 52,500 shares of M/s. KAFL. The assessee sold the said shares during the previous year relevant to assessment year under consideration and such sale was made through M/s. Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd., a registered share and stock broker (contract note placed at pages 6-10 of Paper Book) after duly paying the Security Transaction Tax (STT). The sale consideration the assessee received by account payee cheque between 13.11.2013 to 02.12.2013 in its ICICI account which is evident from the bank statement separately filed before us. Therefore, the long term capital earned in the process has been claimed as exempt income under section 10(38) of the Act. I also note that in support of the assessee s contention various documents had been filed during the course of assessment proceedings i.e. copies of purchase bills, which is available in paper book page 2 to 3. Allotment of shares i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al brought on record the same cannot be held as bogus transaction merely on the basis of report of Investigation Wing, Kolkata wherein there is a general statement of providing bogus long term capital gain transaction to the clients without stating anything about the transaction of allotment of shares by the company to the assessee. 9. The Mumbai Special of the Tribunal in case of GTC Industries vs. ACIT (supra) had the occasion to consider the addition made by the AO on the basis of suspicion and surmises and observed in par 46 as under:- 46. In situations like this case, one may fall into realm of 'preponderance of probability' where there are many probable factors, some in favour of the assessee and some may go against the assessee. But the probable factors have to be weighed on material facts so collected. Here in this case the material facts strongly indicate a probability that the wholesale buyers had collected the premium money for spending it on advertisement and other expenses and it was their liability as per their mutual understanding with the aseessee. Another very strong probable factor is that the entire scheme of 'twin branding' and colle ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... out, then nothing can be implicated against the assessee. 10. Therefore, when the Assessing Officer has not brought any material on record to show that the assessee has paid over and above the purchase consideration as claimed and evident from the bank account then, in the absence of any evidence it cannot be held that the assessee has introduced his own unaccounted money by way of bogus long term capital gain. The Hon'ble Jurisdiction High Court in case of CIT vs. Smt. Pooja Agrawal (supra) has upheld the finding of the Tribunal on this issue in para 12 as under:- 12. However, counsel for the respondent has taken us to the order of CIT(A) and also to the order of Tribunal and contended that in view of the finding reached, which was done through Stock Exchange and taking into consideration the revenue transactions, the addition made was deleted by the Tribunal observing as under:- Contention of the AR is considered. One of the main reasons for not accepting the genuineness of the transactions declared by the appellant that at the time of survey the appellant in his statement denied having made any transactions in shares. However, subsequently the facts came on r ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... vesting Wing after considering all the material facts available on record does not help much. The AO has failed to prove through any independent inquiry or relying on some material that the transactions made by the appellant through share broker P.K. Agarwal were non-genuine or there was any adverse mention about the transaction in question in statement of Sh. Pawan Purohit. Simply because in the sham transactions bank a/c were opened with HDFC bank and the appellant has also received short term capital gain in his account with HDFC bank does not establish that the transaction made by the appellant were non genuine. Considering all these facts the share transactions made through Shri P.K. Agarwal cannot be held as non-genuine. Consequently denying the claim of short term capital gain (6 of 6) [ ITA-385/2011] made by the appellant before the AO is not approved. The AO is therefore, directed to accept claim of short term capital gain as shown by the appellant. In view of the above facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the considered opinion that the addition made by the AO is based on mere suspicion and surmises without any cogent material to show that the assesse ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r the purpose other than, the purchase of shares on behalf of the clients. Therefore, the subject matter of the enquiry has no connection with the transaction of bogus long term capital gain. The decisions replied upon the ld. DR in case of Sanjay Bimalchand Jain vs. Pr. CIT (supra) is not applicable in the facts of the present case as the said decision is in respect penny stock purchase by the assessee from a persons who was found to be indulged in providing bogus capital gain entries whereas in the case of the assessee the shares were allotted to the assessee by the company at par of face value. Hence, in view of the facts and circumstances when we hold that the order of the Assessing Officer treating the long term capital gain as bogus and consequential addition made to the total income of the assessee is not sustainable. Hence, we delete the addition made by the AO on this account. 11. I note that the sale of shares of M/s. KAFL which was dematerlized in Demat account has taken place through recognised stock exchange and assessee received money through banking channel. So, assessee has explained the nature and source of the money with supporting documents and thus has ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ere in fact purchased by the assessees on the respective dates and the company has confirmed to have handed over the shares purchased by the assessees. Similarly, the sale of the shares to the respective buyers is also established by producing documentary evidence. It is true that some of the transactions were off-market transactions. However, the purchase and sale price of the shares declared by the assessees were in conformity with the market rates prevailing on the respective dates as is seen from the documents furnished by the assessees. Therefore, the fact that some of the transactions were off-market transactions cannot be a ground to treat the transactions as sham transactions. The statement of the broker P that the transactions with the H Group were bogus has been demonstrated to be wrong by producing documentary evidence to the effect that the shares sold by the assessees were in consonance with the market price. On perusal of those documentary evidence, the Tribunal has arrived at a finding of fact that the transactions were genuine. Nothing is brought on record to show that the findings recorded by the Tribunal are contrary to the documentary evidence on record. The Trib ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 993-94 and that assessment was accepted by the Department and there was no challenge to the purchase of shares in that year. It was also placed before the relevant AO as well as before the Tribunal that the sale proceeds have been accounted for in the accounts of the assessee and were received through account payee cheque. The Tribunal was right in rejecting the appeal of the Revenue by holding that the assessee was simply a shareholder of the company. He had made investment in a company in which he was neither a director nor was he in control of the company. The assessee had taken shares from the market, the shares were listed and the transaction took place through a registered broker of the stock exchange. There was no material before the AO, which could have lead to a conclusion that the transaction was simplicitier a device to camouflage activities, to defraud the Revenue. No such presumption could be drawn by the AO merely on surmises and conjectures. In the absence of any cogent material in this regard, having been placed on record, the AO could not have reopened the assessment. The assessee had made an investment in a company, evidence whereof was with the AO. --Therefo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Adjudicating Authority did not grant this opportunity to the assessee. It would be pertinent to note that in the impugned order passed by the Adjudicating Authority he has specifically mentioned that such an opportunity was sought by the assessee. However, no such opportunity was granted and the aforesaid plea is not even dealt with by the Adjudicating Authority. As far as the Tribunal is concerned, we find that rejection of this plea is totally untenable. The Tribunal has simply stated that cross 12 examination of the said dealers could not have brought out any material which would not be in possession of the appellant themselves to explain as to why their exfactory prices remain static. It was not for the Tribunal to have guess work as to for what purposes the appellant wanted to cross-examine those dealers and what extraction the appellant wanted from them. As mentioned above, the appellant had contested the truthfulness of the statements of these two witnesses and wanted to discredit their testimony for which purpose it wanted to avail the opportunity of cross examination. That apart, the Adjudicating Authority simply relied upon the price list as maintained at ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Hon ble Supreme Court in the case of Andaman Timber Industries (supra) and considering the facts in totality, the claim of the assessee cannot be denied on the basis of presumption and surmises in respect of penny stock by disregarding the direct evidences on record relating to the sale/purchase transactions in shares supported by broker s contract notes, confirmation of receipt of sale proceeds through regular banking channels and the demat account. 19. Accordingly, we direct the A.O. to treat the gains arising out of the sale of shares under the head capital gains- Short Term or Long Term as the case may be. The other grievance of the assessee becomes infructuous. 18. The ld. D.R. had heavily relied upon the decision of the Hon ble Bombay High Court in the case of Bimalchand Jain in Tax Appeal No. 18 of 2017. I note that in the case relied upon by the ld. D.R, I find that the facts are different from the facts of the case in hand. Firstly, in that case, the purchases were made by the assessee in cash for acquisition of shares of companies and the purchase of shares of the companies was done through the broker and the address of the broker was incidentally the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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