A three-time corporator, Jadhav was first elected in 1997 from the Mazgaon area. (Photo: Twitter/@iYashwantJadhav) The income Tax Department has found 36 benami properties worth Rs 130 crore following its searches on premises, including those of Shiv Sena corporator and BMC Standing Committee Chairman Yashwant Jadhav, on February 25. The department in a statement said it also searched four BMC contractors and found they have evaded
income of Rs 200 crore. It added that it has found “evidences” that show a “close nexus” between Jadhav and these contractors.
“Particulars of about three dozen immovable properties whose value could be more than Rs 130 crore has also been detected. It includes property acquired either in their name or their associates or benamidars,” said the department.
It has further found evidence of international hawala transactions and routing of “ill-gotten” money to foreign countries. The tax authority said it has seized a number of documents, loose sheets of paper and excel files with information on cash receipts and payments. The statement said the BMC contractors have largely suppressed their income by inflating their expenses by “over-invoicing of sub-contract expenses through a maze of entities”.
“Certain instances show that cash has been taken out from these entities and the same has been utilised for obtaining undue favors for awarding of contracts and also for making unaccounted payments for investments in properties,” it added. A three-time corporator, Jadhav was first elected in 1997 from Mazgaon. After winning the corporation election for a third time in 2017, he was elected as the chairman of the Standing Committee, a key panel that has power to sanction expenditure proposals and approve budgets.
With 97 corporators, Sena is the single largest party and all key committees are headed by its leaders.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
