Income Tax department fines Misa Bharti for not heeding to summons

The Income Tax department on Tuesday fined RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti Rs 10,000 for failing to appear before it in connection with a benami property deals case and issued her fresh summons for June 12.

An IT official said, "We have issued her a show cause notice and also fresh summons for June 12."

The official said the IT department has slapped a penalty of Rs 10,000 on Bharti as she failed to depose before the tax agency.

Asked about the fresh summons, Bharti said from Patna over phone, "Whatever reply I have to give, I shall give to the IT department."

Earlier, the Income Tax department had issued summons to Bharti on May 24 to appear before it on June 6.

However, the Rajya Sabha member from Bihar sent her lawyer instead on Tuesday.

Her husband Shailesh Kumar has also been summoned to depose before the tax department officials on June 7.

On May 16, the IT Department had raided 22 places in and around Delhi in connection with alleged benami property deals involving Lalu Prasad and his children - Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav and Misa Bharti.

Besides the residence of the RJD supremo, raids were also conducted at the residence of party MP P.C. Gupta as well as several businessmen and real estate agents in Delhi and Haryana's Gurugram and Rewari, in the wake of allegations by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

Modi has alleged involvement of Lalu Prasad and his three children in corrupt land deals.

Benami means property without a name. In this kind of transaction the person who pays for the property does not buy it under his/her own name.