Income Tax department seizes benami properties of Misa Bharti, Tejashwi Yadav

MP Misa Bharti, daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, (File photo)

In a big move, the Income Tax department on Monday seized the benami properties of Misa Bharti, her husband Shailesh Kumar and Bihar deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. The IT department had earlier issued summon to Misa Bharti, the daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, in connection with its probe in the Rs 1,000 crore alleged benami land deals and tax evasion case, but she failed to appear. Subsequently, the IT department seized properties raided in May.

According to the IT department, Lalu’s kin held some of the properties under their scanner in a ‘benami’ way. Benami properties are those in which the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name the property has been purchased.

Misa and her husband are alleged to have links with a firm– Ms Mishail Packers and Printers Private Limited– which is suspected to have entered into benami deals for purchase of a farm house in Delhi’s Bijwasan area. The department wants to question the couple to take the probe further in this case, where the taxman had conducted multiple searches last month.

A chartered accountant, Rajesh Kumar Agrawal, allegedly linked to Bharti and others was also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 22.