IAS officers such as Rakesh Bahadur, former Principal Secretary of ex-Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, UP state bureaucrats, and relatives of judges have come under the scanner of Income Tax department following searches at 34 locations, including at Noida and Lucknow, to unravel real-estate-government officials nexus that lead to creation of benami assets.

Rakesh Bahadur, a retired IAS officer of 1979 batch, is suspected to have done benami investment in MI Builders subsequent to his posting as Principal Secretary (Home) to the then CM Akhilesh Yadav in 2014, alleged sources in Directorate General of Income Tax (Investigation), Lucknow, which is carrying out the probe.

Before that he was also Chief Executive of Noida, Greater Noida Development Authority and Yamuna Expressway Authority.

A Vila, carrying address -- 1/108, Jaypee Green, Greater Noida, where Bahadur is living was part of the searches carried out on Wednesday. Though he claimed that he was staying on rent which, as per him, is Rs 50,000 per month, IT officers alleged that it appears to be his benami property and the value of the villa is between Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore.

Bahadur was getting consultancy fees in crores from MI Builders which, IT officers alleged, could be an effort to convert black money into white.

More precise details will emerge as the probe proceeds.

Investigation wing

The investigation wing of the IT at Lucknow is going through loads of documents seized from 30 searches in Lucknow and 4 in Noida and Greater Noida to establish the benami asset generating network of the MI Builders, with bureaucrats and relatives of judges.

Details of undisclosed investment of several IAS, relatives of judges and Uttar Pradesh Provincial Civil Service (PCS) officers have been found and are being analysed, said IT sources.

The main persons, as per the IT, of the MI Group -- Syed Mohammad Qadir Ali, Syed Mohammad Qasim Ali, Nida Qadir, Mariyam Qasim, Aisa Umar, Rafat Umar and Naushad Ali.

Eighteen of the MI Group companies are under the probe of the IT investigation wing of Lucknow. They include MI Builders Pvt Ltd, MIB Homes Pvt Ltd, MIB Developers Pvt Ltd, New Height Developers Pvt Ltd and NCR Dwellings Pvt Ltd.

When Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was the UP CM, MI Builders had managed large bank of plots in Noida and Lucknow.

It is alleged that the real estate company had got a large chunk of land in UP at a throw away price at gun point on which an FIR was registered by the state police. That police investigation is also being looked into by the IT sleuths.

Related Topics