The Lucknow unit of the Income Tax department attached several properties worth over Rs 3.47 crore in Kakori area of Lucknow in 2023. These properties were bought by real estate groups using huge amounts of unaccounted cash which is a common sign of benami transactions where the property is in someone else’s name but the real owner is different.
The Income Tax Department can confiscate a property under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions (PBPT) Act 1988 even in a situation when the real owner of that property is not identified. There are specific provisions in the law to deal with this situation. The tribunal related to the anti-benami law said this.
Revealed after Income Tax Department raid
The tribunal upheld the land property attachment order issued by the Lucknow unit of the Income Tax Department on November 26 last year. The matter came to light when the department raided the premises of three Lucknow-based realty groups. These groups had purchased large plots in the Kakori area with unaccounted cash.
No beneficial owner named
The Lucknow-based Benami Prohibition Unit (BPU) had issued an order to confiscate five lands worth more than Rs 3.47 crore in Kakori in October 2023. Apart from a benamidar, two companies and two individuals were named as stakeholders in this order. However, no beneficial owner was named.
Attachment of benami property by Income Tax Department
Usually when an attachment order is issued by the Income Tax Department, it contains the name of the benamidar and the beneficial owner, but in this case, the tribunal has partially confirmed the income tax attachment order, which includes property worth Rs 3.10 crore out of Rs 3.47 crore. In this case, Ravi Kumar, an office boy of a real estate company called Excella, has been identified as the benamidar.
Action against benami properties
This decision of the Income Tax Department Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions (PBPT) shows that the Income Tax Department has sufficient powers under the law to take action against benami properties even if the real owner is not identified.
