BJP MP tweets ‘tax return of great journalist’, Abhisar Sharma and others say breach of privacy

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey tweeted an alleged ITR document to claim a massive rise in the income of a journalist after he left his job to “abuse” Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. Who was this journalist? He left his followers to guess.

The so-called ITR document, which didn’t have any person’s name on it, pointed out that the taxable income rose from Rs 18.9 lakh in 2019 to Rs 1.2 crore in 2021-22 and then shrunk to Rs 62.7 lakh in 2022-23.

“Figure it out if you can: whose great journalist’s income tax return is this? Rs 18 lakh in salary, and the moment they quit the job, meaning as soon as they start roaming the streets, abusing Modi ji/BJP, it's in crores. This is the real truth,” Dubey wrote.

Journalist Abhisar Sharma retweeted Dubey’s post and tagged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, saying that “confidential documents and details of tax payers… are being tweeted in the public forum by none other than a Member of Parliament.”

Sharma also tagged the Income Tax Department and stated that he will file an FIR against Dubey, who, the journalist said, “doesn’t have the guts to name the journalist. But this is what you do. Sheer cowardice.” Journalist Ravish Kumar also pointed at the disturbing signal the tweet sends out. “Is the BJP now going to extract everyone's ITR and target them? Will someone's hard-earned income be criminalized in this manner?”

Disclosing the ITR of an individual is punishable under section 72 (breach of confidentiality and privacy) and section 138 (disclosure of information respecting assessees) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

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