I-T charges Lalu's family on Rs 1000 crore benami land deal case

New Delhi/Patna: The income-tax department on Tuesday charged six family members of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, including his wife, son and daughters, under the new, stringent anti-benami assets law over its probe into alleged land deals worth Rs 1,000 crore and tax evasion.

Sources said the I-T department had also served notices of attachment of assets to Lalu Yadav’s MP daughter Misa Bharti, son-in-law Shailesh Kumar, his wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, son and Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and daughters Chanda and Ragini Yadav. Sources said the provisional attachment order has been issued under Section 24(3) of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act 2016, and the RJD leader’s family members identified as the “beneficiaries” of the alleged benami assets. Those violating this law attract rigorous imprisonment of upto seven years and a fine upto 25 per cent of the market value of the property.

The I-T department has attached about a dozen plots and buildings in Delhi and Bihar, including a farmhouse and land in Delhi’s Palam Vihar area, a residential house in South Delhi’s posh New Friends Colony area, nine plots on a 256.75 decimal land area in the Phulwari Sharif area of Patna, where a shopping mall was being built, among a few others in the same area in Bihar’s capital. The I-T officials said these alleged benami assets bear a “deed” value of about Rs 9.32 crore, but they have evaluated their current market value at Rs 170-180 crore.

In Patna, Tejashwi Yadav told reporters that “all these rumours are spread because of political vendetta and political conspiracies”, and dismissed the charges as “unsubstantiated allegations”. The order also identified firms like M/s Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt Ltd, AB Exports Pvt Ltd, Delight Marketing Pvt Ltd and AK Infosystems Pvt Ltd as “benamidars” in this case. The department has been investigating this case for some time now and had carried out nationwide searches last month against those who had a role or were linked with the purchase and sale of these assets. Ms Bharti and her husband Shailesh were also summoned for questioning in this case earlier, but the couple had skipped the dates. Official sources said they are likely to be summoned again before more assets are attached in this case.

After a string of money laundering allegations against Lalu Yadav’s minister sons and his daughter, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi fired a benami property salvo at former CM Rabri Devi on Tuesday, claiming she had acquired property worth several crores in Patna. Furnishing relevant documents, Mr Modi claimed there were around 18 flats and parking slots in Patna owned by the former Bihar CM. He said the flats were constructed over a 18,652 sq. ft. area and the estimated cost of the property was Rs 20 crore as per current values. Mr Modi further claimed Rabri Devi acquired the property in the form of gifts from three persons, whose family members were given jobs in the Railways when Lalu Yadav was railway minister. “Documents show properties located at various locations in Patna belonged to three persons whose family members were given railway jobs,” Mr Modi told this newspaper in Patna on Tuesday.

Benami properties are those in which the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name (benamidar) the property is purchased. The department will now move to confiscate these assets after getting approval from the adjudicating authority under this law, which allows for prosecution of the beneficial owner, benamidar, the abettor and inducer to benami transactions. Under this law, assets held to be benami after final prosecution are liable for confiscation by the government without payment of compensation.

The action under this law is over and above the normal tax evasion probe and prosecution the I-T department will undertake against the accused under the Income-Tax Act 1961 for tax evasion. As per official data till May 23, it has identified 400 benami transactions in India, and provisional attachment of assets was done in 240 cases.

The RJD chief had earlier put up a brave face after the tax raids in this case, saying he was “not scared at all” and that he would continue to fight against the “fascist forces”. He had said in a series of tweets after the search operation: “BJP mein himmat nahi hai ki Lalu ki awaz ko daba sake. Lalu ki awaz dabayenge to desh bhar me karoron Lalu khare ho jayenge. Main gidarbhabhki se nahi darne wala hoon (The BJP does not have courage to stifle my voice. If it tries to silence me, crores of Lalus will come forward. I am not scared of empty threats)”.