BHOPAL: In a significant development, at least ten Benami properties owned by a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer MA Khan in the name of his kin in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have been attached provisionally by the Income Tax Department.
Importantly, Khan was the Bhopal district collector in early 1990s and retired a few years back as Principal Secretary in the Madhya Pradesh Government.
The ten properties located in posh areas of Bhopal, Jabalpur (MP) and Faridabad (Haryana) are presently worth around Rs 25 crores and have been attached provisionally under Section 24(3) of The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act 2016 and a show cause notice served to the ex-bureaucrat under Section 24(1) of the same act, a senior Income Tax Department (Benami Wing’s) official in Bhopal told The New Indian Express on Tuesday.
The properties attached provisionally for 90 days, include three pieces of agricultural land totaling around 11 acres and worth around Rs 4 crores in Hujur block of Bhopal district and three bungalows and residential property worth around Rs 8 crores in the posh Arera Colony area.
Also, the attached properties, include an 11,500 sq ft residential plot worth around Rs 10 crore near Imperial Sabre Hotel in Bhopal’s posh Kohefiza area and a house worth around Rs 2 crores in which Khan presently lives with family in the Housing Board Colony of MP capital’s Kohefiza area.
Also, two properties located outside Bhopal, among them a Rs 50 lakh-worth flat in Charmwood Village in Faridabad and a 1000 sq ft flat worth around Rs 1.5 crores in Ashiana Apartments in Jabalpur’s Right Town area have been attached.
“Investigations have revealed that Khan obtained these properties in the name of his family members and close relatives in the period spanning from 2001 and 2008. Search was carried out at his premises in Bhopal by the Income Tax Department in February 2010. Since then these properties have been under the IT department scanner and after the new Benami Properties Act came to force in 2016, investigations began afresh into the Benami properties owned by Khan in the name of his kin,” the senior IT department official added.
“The 10 properties have been provisionally attached recently and a show cause notice served on Khan to explain why the properties shouldn’t be permanently attached under the provisions of the 2016 Act aimed at curbing Benami transactions. He has been given 15 days to file the reply,” the official said.
A visit by the New Indian Express team to the Benami properties attached in the posh Arera Colony area revealed that one of the bungalows (E-4/316) presently houses Krishna Murari Moghe, who is a former BJP MP and present chairman of State Housing Board. Moghe is also the former mayor of Indore.
The other bungalow (E-3/91) in Arera Colony presently houses Anand Bernard, who is the member of MP State Minorities Commission, while the third bungalow (E-2 146) owned by Khan in Bhopal’s Arera Colony presently houses a caretaking centre for destitute operated by state government’s Women and Child Department.
When contacted in the matter by TNIE over phone, the ex-bureaucrat MA Khan denied comment.
Importantly, maximum 317 Benami properties worth around Rs 100 crores were attached in MP and Chhattisgarh by the Income Tax department in 2017-18. It was the highest number of Benami properties attached by the department anywhere in the country during last fiscal year.