MUMBAI: The income-tax (I-T) department is probing ownership details of a Rs 5.3 crore flat at Nariman Point, sold to a former bureaucrat, because the department suspects it was a benami property in the hands of the seller.
Former state chief secretary Ajoy Mehta had purchased the flat from Anamitra Properties Pvt Ltd, Kothrud, in Pune. He is currently MahaRera chairman. Mehta said, “Like any buyer, I checked that there was no loan on the flat or any dispute on the property before purchasing it from the seller (Nikhil Gokhale). How can I know what his or his company’s background is? I paid all the money through cheques after using all my fixed deposits and retirement benefits. I purchased it at its market rate in the 35-year-old building.”
The I-T has issued a show-cause notice to the company after it found that one of the shareholders stayed in a chawl. The department issued a show-cause notice to the principal officer of Anamitra Properties Pvt Ltd, Kothrud, after it found that the person who has 99% shareholding, Kamlesh Singh, denied any connection with the company. I-T officials suspect someone misused his details to show him as owner of the company. Singh lives in a chawl off Western Express Highway at Goregaon East. One of the company’s directors, Nikhil Gokhale, sold the flat last year to Mehta. The I-T notice stated Anamitra Properties Pvt Ltd had purchased the flat in 2009 for Rs 4 crore reportedly from the son of a late judge, who owned the flat. Anamitra had no business activity, and the I-T department suspects it was the flat’s benami owner. It is inquiring about the person controlling the company.
