I-T dept tightens noose around Anand Kumar and his wife

Income-Tax Department has attached a “benami” commercial plot measuring seven acres and worth Rs 400 crore belonging to BSP chief Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar and his wife in Noida Sector 94.

The IT Department has applied Section 24(3) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, under which the department can attach an asset if it estimates the asset to be benami.

The attached plot bearing number 2A in Sector 94 Noida is located in the vicinity of proposed five star hotel and other such luxury infrastructure.

Anand and his wife, Vichiter Lata, allegedly used six companies for transactions relating to the acquisition of the attached plot, sources said.

The benami transactions were effected through a host of companies, including 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 Add-Fin Capital Services India Pvt Ltd, sources said. The provisional order for the attachment of the plot “beneficially owned” by Anand and his wife was issued on July 16.

Benami properties refer to the instances wherein the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name the property is registered.

During probe, 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.

Anand 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 route illegal money for the transactions leading to the purchase of the property. Source of funds of these companies is “fictitious” and by way of “unexplained cash credit”, the IT probe has revealed.

The anti-benami law attracts a rigorous imprisonment of up to seven years and fine up to 25 per cent of the fair market value of the property. Under the Act, the Department is entitled to prosecute the beneficial owner, the “benamidar”, the abettor and the inducer to “benami” transactions besides confiscation of the property.

Violators of the anti-benami law 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.

Kumar was recently appointed by Mayawati as National vice president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).