A City court on Wednesday threw out the petition of Romesh Sharma, alleged front man of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, against a two year-jail term awarded for evading income tax worth Rs 50 crore.

The sessions court also upheld a monetary penalty of Rs 3 lakh on Sharma.

Sharma, a former Congress leader, was told by the court that the magistrate had “rightly” adopted a “stern” view while awarding the punishment and that there was no reason for interfering with the order.

A magistrate had convicted Sharma in March last year, after Income Tax officials recovered a helicopter, a fleet of imported cars and costly watches, apart from cash, from his palatial farmhouse.

According to the prosecution, Sharma had not deposited his dues despite sufficient reminders by the I-T Department. In 1987-88, the tax amount overdue was Rs 2.47 crore; in 1988-89 the overdue amount was Rs 21 lakh, and in 1989-90 he owed Rs 25 lakh to the I-T Department.

Interestingly, Sharma, in his appeal, called himself “poor” and “indigent” while pleading that he did not have adequate finances to pay the taxes. He also claimed that he did not own the imported cars or the farmhouse and the I-T officials had falsely implicated him.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Nivedita Anil Sharma, however, dismissed his argument. “This plea does not appear to be justified as he was maintaining a big accommodation, besides having a fleet of imported cars at his disposal along with numerous watches and cash. He must have spent huge amounts maintaining the house, cars etc, which implies that he could also have paid the income tax that he deliberately failed to pay.”

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