New Delhi: An Income Tax department investigation into Hawala deals allegedly made by Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain might land him in big trouble.
The department has recommended the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after it found that he was holding benami properties.
I-T has attached assets of companies allegedly owned by Jain and his close associates under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act.
According the I-T department, Jain used unaccounted income of Rs. 16.38 crore in shares of Indo Metal Impex, Akinchan Developers, Paryas Infosolutions and Mangalyatan Projects. Jain and his family have majority stake in these companies.
I-T also found that most of the companies had no source of income.
Apart from this, the department found that Jain purchased 123.16 bigha (49.33 acre) and 36.07 biswa (295.64 acre) land in Delhi with the same income.
A closer look at the money trail shows that cash was first handed over to Kolkata-based Hawala dealers. The money was allegedly further infused into 56 shell companies and then channelled into companies controlled by Jain and his family members.
During the investigation, it was also found that Jain had allegedly purchased more than 80 acres in Karala, Auchandi, Nizampur, Budham north and north-west area of Delhi in close vicinity of unauthorised colonies.
The department also found that though Jain tried to camouflage transactions by using Kolkata-based Hawala dealers and shell companies, he, however, got the registered deed done in his name.
The land purchased by Jain (in Karala Village) falls in the planned development framework where more than 89 villages will be sooner or later urbanised under the Land Pooling Policy (LPP).
The LPP proposes a partnered development model wherein landowners are made stakeholders in developing the housing units with the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
The agency classified land by ownership into two categories with different stake share. The first category includes land of 20 hectare or more. In this category, the developer keeps 60% share while the DDA retains 40% share. In the second category, which has land between 2-20 hectares, the developer keeps a 48% share while the DDA keeps 52%.
Though a talk on LPP has been in existence since 2010–11, the policy is taking final shape now. The Union Urban Development Ministry has been notified and DDA has given its nod. A final notification from the Delhi government is awaited.
The AAP government has been taking a part of the decision-making and was sitting on the final decision for a while now.
Thus, the role of Jain can be looked with suspicion/conflict of interest as he occupies the position of Urban Development Ministry and can be seen as a direct beneficiary in case the prices of land increases due to policy decision.
One of the companies owned by Jain has admitted before the I-T Department that the land was purchased keeping in mind the decision of the government to announce housing projects.
The company said, “The current prices of the agricultural land in hand was perceived to go high in view of the fact that government may at anytime go ahead with the policy of declaring these areas of agricultural land lying in the border areas of Delhi as residential areas to promote new housing requirements of NCR. The expected change in the prices of such land upon the announcement being made by the government was expected in the range 2 to 4 times of the current price."
The Income Tax Department is also closely looking at transactions between Jain and his wife. Bank statements shows that his wife transferred huge amounts which do not match with the Income tax returns filed.
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