The income-tax department has attached a benami commercial plot worth Rs 400 crore in Noida belonging to Mayaw... Read More

NEW DELHI: The income-tax department has attached a benami commercial plot worth Rs 400 crore in Noida belonging to Mayawati ’s brother and his wife. The BSP chief on Thursday alleged it as “BJP’s deplorable attempt to falsely implicate… and harass members of my family”.

The provisional order for the attachment of the seven-acre plot, “beneficially owned” by Anand Kumar — recently appointed BSP national vice-president — and his wife, Vichiter Lata, was issued by the I-T department’s Delhi-based Benami Prohibition Unit on July 16.

The plot, on which a five-star hotel and other luxury facilities are planned, is registered at 2A, Sector 94, Noida and measures 28,328.07 square metres or about seven acres and has a book value of Rs 400 crore, the order said.

According to findings of the probe, the I-T department detected a “complex web of shareholding” by at least six firms, including dummy companies, who were the ‘benamidars’ or the ‘entities’ in whose name the benami property was standing.

The companies identified as ‘benamidars’ in the order are Vision Town Planners Private Limited, BPTP International Trade Center Pvt Ltd, Euro Asia Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Sunny Cast and Forge Pvt Ltd, Karishma industries Pvt Ltd and Ad-Fin Capital Services India Pvt. Ltd.

Kumar and Lata were the sole beneficiaries of the funds of the multi-layered benami transactions that took place through these companies, the department alleged. The two have been charged with paying the actual monetary consideration to own the asset.

According to the probe, the asset was created after allegedly using the services of some Delhi-based hawala entry operators. The department has held that the “source of funds” of these companies is “fictitious”.

Mayawati said: “BJP is misusing power to hatch a conspiracy to falsely implicate its rivals. But BSP is not going to be cowed down. In 2003, the government led by the same party had targeted us through CBI and I-T department. But ultimately, we got justice from the Supreme Court.”



In Video: Trouble for Mayawati’s kin as IT dept attaches property worth Rs 400 crore