Kejriwal Episode: Hegde Says Govt Seems Vindictive

Five years after relinquishing his job, Anna Hazare's aide Arvind Kejriwal was slapped a notice by the Income Tax department last month. The Income-Tax department demanded the Magsaysay Award winner to pay dues of more than Rs 9 lakh.

The notice was served a week before Anna Hazare kicked off his anti-corruption crusade on August 16 at Ramlila Maidan. Incidentally, officially, Kejriwal is still an IRS employee as the department has not accepted his resignation tendered in 2006. The I-T department maintains that Kejriwal violated bond conditions and his resignation, will be accepted only once the dues are cleared.

Team Anna member Justice Santosh Hegde says the timing seems vindictive. "At a time when he has done so much in the movement of Anna Hazare. The government seems to be taking vindictive steps, it looks to me at the first sight. I think people at large will misundersatnd this. Five yrs back he left his job, he signed a bond and now when amidst all these happenings, they slap him this amount and say come and pay within a week, looks vindictive to me," said Justice Hegde.

Replying to the question whether the government will harass every member of Team Hazare, former Karnataka Lokayukta and Anna Team member justice Santhosh Hegde said "I don't know, may be so. Such attempts have been going on for a long time, either to denigrate them or to harass them in one way or the other."