Rs 400-cr plot of Maya’s brother, wife attached

New Delhi, July 18

The Income Tax Department has attached a ‘benami’ commercial plot worth Rs 400 crore in Noida belonging to BSP supremo Mayawati’s brother and his wife.

The provisional order for the attachment of the seven-acre plot, “beneficially owned” by Anand Kumar and his wife Vichiter Lata, was issued on July 16 by the department’s Delhi-based Benami Prohibition Unit (BPU). Mayawati recently appointed her brother Kumar as national vice-president of the Bahujan Samaj Party. 

The plot, where a five-star hotel and other luxury facilities were planned to be created, is registered in Noida, part of the National Capital Region.  The order has been issued under section 24(3) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988. 

The attached asset, considered a ‘benami’ property of Kumar and his wife by the department, measures about seven acres, the order said. The book value of the property is Rs 400 crore, it said.

According to findings of the probe, the tax department detected a “complex web of shareholding” by at least six firms. According to the tax probe, the asset was created after allegedly using the services of Delhi-based hawala entry operators, who route illegal money. — PTI