I-T dept attaches Rs 230-cr 'benami' assets of Mayawati's ex-secy

The income tax department has attached "benami" assets worth Rs 230 crore of retired IAS officer Net Ram who also served as secretary to former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, official sources said on Tuesday.

They said a total of 19 immovable properties spread across Delhi, Noida, Kolkata and Mumbai have been attached by the department.

A provisional order of the attachment against Net Ram has been issued by the Delhi investigation unit of the department under section 24(3) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, they said.

The attached properties are both commercial and residential.

The officer, who served in top positions during BSP supremo Mayawati's chief ministership, was first raided by the tax department in March this year.

It had seized cash worth over Rs 1.64 crore, Mont Blanc pens valued at Rs 50 lakh and four luxury SUVs after these searches and had claimed to have recovered documents related to 'benami' assets of the officer worth Rs 300 crore.

The Delhi unit of the department subsequently took over the case to probe under the anti-benami transaction law that had been lying inoperative since 1988 and was enforced from November, 2016 by the Modi government.