DCIT Vs Shree Siddhi Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. (ITAT Ahmedabad)
Sahara Diaries Logic Applies—Third-Party Diary Cannot Tax Assessee -No Name, No Nexus, No Cash Trail- Rs.24+ Crore Additions Collapse
AO made huge additions u/s 68 & 69A across three years based solely on a seized coded diary/cash-book of Venus Group, decoded by AO to allege unaccounted cash dealings with Assessee. AO assumed that the name “Kalpesh” in seized diary referred to Assessee’s director & treated decoded entries as evidence of cash exchanges of Rs.4 crore, Rs.7.5 crore, Rs.1 crore u/s 68 & Rs.5.8 crore, Rs.2 crore u/s 69A. Additions were made ignoring Assessee’s audited books showing long-standing running accounts with Sunderdeep Builders & Venus Infrastructure, with all transactions routed through banking channels & supported by opening debit balances running into several crores.
CIT(A) deleted all additions holding that seized diary was a third-party document, containing no name of Assessee, not found from Assessee’s premises, no handwriting/signature link, no corroborative statement from Venus Group, & decoded figures did not match Assessee’s actual ledger in any year. Ledger analysis showed cheque-based loan cycles fully recorded & unmatched with AO’s decoded entries. CIT(A) held seized diary as a “dumb document” incapable of supporting additions without corroboration, relying on Nishant Construction, Prarthana Construction, Hitesh B Patel & Sahara Diaries precedent.
