A search u/s 132 of the Act was conducted on the assessee’s group. The Ld. AO completed the assessment u/s. 153C of the act. Subsequently, a search was conducted on third parties wherein statement of a third person was recorded wherein he admitted to have given bogus loans. The Ld. AO thereafter reopened the earlier assessment completed u/s 153C, by making the addition of loan received and adding it to the total income of the assessee. CIT (A) confirmed the order of Ld. A.O. Aggrieved by the same, assessee filed an appeal before ITAT. The Tribunal observed that reopening was done on the basis of the evidences gathered during the search conducted on the third parties. The basic requirement of law for reopening an assessment is application of mind by the Assessing Officer, to the materials produced prior to reopening the assessment, to conclude that he has reason to believe that income has escaped assessment. Unless that basic jurisdictional requirement is satisfied a post mortem exercise of analysing materials produced subsequent to the reopening will not make an inherently defective reassessment order valid. The Tribunal held that in the instant case, Ld. AO simply acted upon the information received from the investigation wing and did not apply his own mind. Therefore, the reopening under section 147 only on the basis of information received from the Investigation Wing was quashed as not valid. (ITA No. 181/Asr/2017 dt. 15.01.2019 (AY. 2008-09).