Mayavati: CBI ghost

New Delhi, June 7 (PTI): A CBI team recently checked revenue records of some farm houses and bungalows allegedly owned by Mayavati in the course of probing the disproportionate assets case against the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

CBI sources here today said that the team visited Noida, Khurja, Muzaffarnagar and Bulandshahr and checked the records as the bureau had alleged that properties were purchased and later sold in Mayavati’s name and in the name of her relatives.

The method, the sources said, involved buying a house or a property in one name and then selling it to three or four relatives or confidants of the Bahujan Samaj Party chief before buying it back.

The sources claimed to have recovered assets worth Rs 15 crore in the name of Mayavati and her relatives. The former chief minister was already under the scanner in connection with the Rs 175-crore Taj heritage corridor case, being monitored by the Supreme Court.

Last year, the CBI filed an FIR in a designated court in Lucknow under Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, following which searches were carried out.

The bureau claimed to have recovered documents relating to the purchase of property in Delhi and other parts of Uttar Pradesh during the period from April 1, 1995, to August 29, 2003. Mayavati resigned as chief minister on August 27 last year.

In the FIR, the CBI claimed that Mayavati had disclosed her income as Rs 1.12 crore during this period but the bureau found that her bank balance in two accounts at Parliament Street and Moti Bagh alone amounted to Rs 2.51 crore.

The FIR also claimed that she bought land in Lucknow during an auction in March 2003 in the name of her party, the BSP, for Rs 45.75 lakh, which she later transferred to her name on August 8, 2003.

Another deal is said to have involved the purchase of 5.15 hectares at Gyaspur in Bulandshahr for Rs 33 lakh in the name of Mayavati’s brother Annad Kumar.

The BSP chief allegedly got the land transferred from Kumar to another brother and then her father before finally shifting the ownership back to Kumar on September 12, 2003.

The scrutiny of the bank accounts of Mayavati’s close relatives, including father, mother, brothers and sister-in-law, revealed a balance of Rs 2.39 crore, besides fixed deposit worth Rs 74 lakh in the name of her brother Raj Kumar and his wife, the FIR said. It further alleged that the family members “do not have any ostensible means to have such huge deposits”.