The Income Tax Department has issued summonses to RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s MP daughter Misa Bharti and her husband in connection with its probe in the Rs 1,000 crore alleged benami land deals and a tax evasion case. The development followed the arrest of chartered acountant Rajesh Kumar Agrawal by the Enforcement Directorate on May 22. Agrawal is alleged to have aided in llegal transactions involving Lalu’s kin.
Officials said the department has asked Bharti, a Rajya Sabha member, and her husband Shailesh Kumar to appear before the investigating officer (IO) here in the first week of June. The department had on May 16 searched multiple premises of about two dozen entities connected to this case and seized documents and computer hardware. They said the summonses to Bharti and Kumar are part of the investigation and their statements will be recorded.
The couple 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 Delhis Bijwasan area. Certain other property deals are also under the scanner of the taxman, they said.
I-T department officials had said they will apply provisions of the newly enacted Benami Transactions Act, 1988, which became operational from November 1 last year, in this case. The law provides for a maximum punishment of seven years in jail and a fine. The action under this new law will be over and above the legal proceedings under the Income Tax Act, 1961, which relates to charges of domestic tax evasion.
