IT dept attaches ₹400 cr benami plot owned by Mayawati's kin

The Income-Tax Department has attached a benami plot worth ₹400 crore in Noida belonging to BSP supremo Mayawati’s brother and his wife, an official order said.

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 Delhi-based Benami Prohibition Unit (BPU) of the department.

Mayawati recently appointed Kumar as national vice president of the Bahujan Samaj Party.
The order, accessed by PTI, 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 28,328.07 square meters or about seven acres, the order said.

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The book value of the property is Rs 400 crore, it said.

The law stipulates that a violator of the Benami Act can face rigorous imprisonment up to seven years besides being liable to pay fine up to 25 per cent of fair market value of the benami property.

The department started initiating action under the new Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 from November 1, 2016 after the Modi government enforced the dormant-lying law from that year.

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The I-T Department is the nodal department to enforce the Benami Act in the country.