The attached plot is 2A, Sector 94, Noida and is situated in the vicinity of a proposed five star hotel and other luxury projects.
The Income Tax department on Thursday attached 'benami' plot of land belonging to the former Uttar Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati's brother Anand Kumar and his wife. The attached land is believed to be worth Rs 400 crore.
The action has been taken by the I-T Department under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transaction Act. The attached plot is 2A, Sector 94, Noida and is situated in the vicinity of a proposed five star hotel and other luxury projects.
Kumar and his wife Vichiter Lata allegedly used six companies for dubious transactions to acquire the tainted plot, agency sources said.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati recently appointed Kumar as the national vice- president of the party.
The six companies used for the transactions include Vision Town Planners Pvt Ltd, BPTP International Trade Center Pvt Ltd, Euro Asia Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Sunny Cast and Forge Pvt Ltd, Karishma industries Pvt Ltd and Add-Fin Capital Services India Pvt. Ltd, sources said.
The I-T Department's provisional order for the attachment of the plot "beneficially owned" by Kumar and his wife was issued on July 16.
Benami properties are those in which the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name the property is registered.
The I-T Department has invoked Section 24 (3) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 under which the department is empowered to attach a property if it finds the asset to be of benami character.
The 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 registered. Kumar and his wife are the sole beneficiaries of the funds of the multi-layered 'benami' transactions that took place through these companies, the department alleged.
The asset was created after allegedly using the services of Delhi-based hawala entry operators, who routed illegal money for the transactions leading to the acquisition of the property. Source of funds of these companies is "fictitious" and by way of "unexplained cash credit", the I-T probe has revealed.
The anti-benami law attracts a rigorous imprisonment of up to seven years and fine of up to 25% of the market value of the property. The Act empowers the Department to prosecute the beneficial owner, the 'benamidar', the abettor and the inducer to 'benami' transactions besides confiscation of the property.
Anti-benami law violators are also liable to face prosecution under the Income Tax Act, 1961. The I-T Department is the nodal agency for enforcing the Benami Act.
Complex Web
The 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 registered
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