Benami land deal: I-T attaches assets of Lalu’s daughter

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department provisionally attached a few immovable properties in connection with its probe in the ₹1,000 crore benami land deals and tax evasion allegedly involving family members of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

Officials said two assets — a house and land in Delhi — have been attached after the department issued a provisional order under the Benami Transactions Act, 1988, that came into force on November 1 last year.

They said the assets are in the benami possession and the action has been taken after the department carried out raids in this case last month. The value of the attached properties could not be ascertained immediately.

Benami properties are those in which the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name the property has been purchased.

The officials added that a few more such assets will soon be attached in the case, even as they wanted to question Prasad’s MP daughter, Misa Bharti, and her husband, Shailesh Kumar. Both have skipped I-T summons in the past.

In this case, a chartered accountant, Rajesh Kumar Agrawal, allegedly linked to Bharti and others, was also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on May 22. He allegedly aided in illegal transactions involving Prasad’s kin.

Officials earlier said that the summons to Bharti and Kumar were a part of the probe in the case and that the department wants to record their statements.

The couple allegedly has links with a firm -- Ms Mishail Packers and Printers Private Limited-which is suspected to have entered into benami deals for purchase of a farmhouse in Delhi’s Bijwasan area.

Tax department officials had said Prasad’s kin held some of the properties under their scanner in a ‘benami’ way.

The RJD chief, however, had sought to put up a brave face after the raids.