'No tax return filed by Ajay Sharma'

Income Tax authorities on Wednesday claimed that former Test cricketer Ajay Sharma has not filed a single tax return till date.

Highly-placed sources in the department said Sharma had not filed any tax return despite having taxable income.

They claimed that when Sharma was confronted with the fact, he could give no plausible explanation for the lapse during a seven-hour grilling by officials on Tuesday.

They said Sharma will be called again for questioning after the authorities prepare his assessment report.

Sharma, a prolific batsman and highest century maker in domestic cricket, had left the country for London immediately after the match-fixing controversy broke on April 6ix. He returned from London on September 11.

During his stay in London, the CBI, which is also probing the case, had recorded his statement.

Sharma, meanwhile, was not available for comments on the IT department's claims.

The sources also said that more cricketers would be summoned for questioning, besides cricketing icon Kapil Dev and star batsman Ajay Jadeja would be reexamined.

They said the preliminary statements of Kapil and Jadeja had been recorded and now in the second phase they would be confronted with the documents recovered during the raids on their premises.

The cricketers would have to explain all "unusual deposits and withdrawals" from their bank accounts, they said.

Meanwhile, cricketer-turned-commentator Navjot Singh Sidhu was called by the Income Tax director (Investigations) based in Ludhiana. However, the cricketer sent medical certificates stating that his health is not good enough to face any questioning, the sources claimed.

Mail Cricket Editor