LUCKNOW: Amid the crackdown on gangsters by the UP government to demolish their economic empire created through illegal wealth, the Income Tax department’s Lucknow unit served a notice to gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Banda jail on Thursday.
The notice pertains to the recent attachment of property measuring 0.207 hectare worth Rs 12 crore allegedly owned by Mukhtar Ansari but registered in the name of Ganesh Dutt Mishra, who is an employee in a company owned by Ansari.
The IT department issued the notice seeking details of Ansari’s ties with Mishra for further probe. Sources said as many as 23 more benami properties belonging to Mukhtar Ansari were traced by the IT department and a part of the notice served on him also dealt with it.
The property in question was found to be registered in the name of Mishra in Mauja Kupurpur in Ghazipur, the native district of Ansari.
While scanning records, officials found that the land was registered on November 25, 2017. Mishra had purchased the land from Sushma and Geeta Rai for Rs 3.71 crore.
The role of Mishra also surfaced during a probe into financial transactions of a construction company named Aaghaaz Constructions in which Ansari’s wife Afsan Ansari has 1,500 shares, father-in-law Jamshed Raza 3,425 shares and son Abbas Ansari 19,170 shares.
The company had taken a loan of Rs 1.06 crore in the name of Mishra from Union Bank of India and a property worth Rs 90 lakh belonging to Mishra was mortgaged. “All these points have been elaborated and sent to Ansari for replies,” said the sources.
I-T department officials said that they started a probe after a case was registered against Ansari, his wife and son under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2021.
Police sources said that Ansari had purchased many properties in the name of Mishra.
So far, properties worth Rs 290 crore owned by the gangster-politician and his accomplices from across the state have been seized by the UP government. Meanwhile, immovable property worth Rs 282 crore belonging to Ansari has been vacated by the police.