Income Tax dept books Lalu’s family for ‘benami’ deals

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department has charged six family members of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, including his wife, son and daughters, under the new and stringent anti-benami assets law in connection with its probe into land deals worth ₹1,000 crore.

The department also served notices of attachment of assets to Lalu’s MP daughter Misa Bharti, son-in-law Shailesh Kumar, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son and Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and daughters Chanda and Ragini .

Violators under the act, enacted in 1988 but implemented from November 1 , attract rigorous imprisonment of up to seven years and fine of up to 25% of the fair market value of the property.

The department attached about a dozen plots and buildings in Delhi and Bihar including a residential building in the upmarket New Friends Colony area of south Delhi.

The department has said these alleged benami assets bear a “deed” value of about Rs 9.32 crore but the taxman has estimated their current market value at ₹170-180 crore.

In Patna, Tejashwi told reporters that “all these rumours are spread because of political vendetta and political conspiracies” and dismissed the charges as “unsubstantiated allegations.”

The order has also identified firms like Ms Mishail Packers and Printers Private Limited, AB Exports Pvt Ltd, Delight Marketing Pvt Ltd and A K Infosystem Pvt Ltd as the ‘benamidars’ in this case.

The department has been investigating the case for quite sometime now and had carried out country-wide searches last month against those who had a role or were linked with the purchase and sale of these assets.

Bharti and her husband Shailesh were also summoned by the department for questioning in this case in the past but the couple skipped the dates.

Official sources said they are expected to be summoned again before more assets in this case are attached similarly.

Benami properties are those in which the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name (benamidar) the property has been purchased. The department will now move for confiscating these assets after getting approval from the Adjudicating Authority of the Act. The Act allows for prosecution of the beneficial owner, the benamidar, the abettor and the inducer to benami transactions.