Under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, the IT department temporarily attached the Nariman Point apartment of Ajoy Mehta. Let’s look over the details of income Tax raid on Ajoy Mehta.
Ajoy Mehta income tax detail
Mehta was an adviser to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddav Thackeray.
This property was under observation by the Income Tax Department due to the Benami transaction.
The Income Tax Department’s Benami Division issued a show cause notice to a company that sold assets to Meta in a large transaction. Sources say the property deal was between Mehta and an alleged shell company.
Former state secretary Ajoy Mehta bought an apartment in Nariman. The property was sold to Mehta by Anamitra Properties Pvt Ltd, a shell company, for Rs 5.33 crore in 2020. The property is at Nariman Point in South Mumbai and is worth around Rs 10.62 crore.
The owners of the shell company, Anamitra Properties, knew nothing about the company, its shares, or the assets it purchased. Kamlesh Nathani Singh, the company’s 99.9% shareholder, lived in a slum in the western suburbs of Mumbai. He has never filed an income tax return. 1% shareholder, Dipesh Ravindra Satam, has only filed his IT return for 2020 to 2021 with an annual income of Rs 1.72 lakh.
Ajoy Mehta, in his capacity as BMC Commissioner, supported Avinash Bosser’s proposal for granting development rights for the existing 30-foot road connecting JVLR and Mahakali Cave. The proposal was approved despite the fact that the BMC’s Chief Engineer argued that there was no provision in the development plan for granting TDR on existing facilities or roads. Mehta and Bhosale were both called by IT officials. But instead of showing up in person, they sent the investigation officers their submissions.
Shares of the residence were owned by Nikhil Ghokale under the direction of Avinash Beaucer and later transferred to the name of Ajoy Mehta. Nikhil Gokhale is the nephew of Avinash Bhosale.
Investigations revealed that the particular person Vidyadhar Mirajkar was appointed director of the company by Nikhil Gokhale in 2018.
Gokhale works for Bhosale. He serves on the boards of about 21 ABIL Group companies. The board consists of Avinash Bhosale and its affiliates, of which he has no business with 15 companies.
Nikhil Gokhale confirmed working on the directions of his uncle Avinash Bhosale.
Rs 4.35 crore loan was disbursed by Indiabulls Finance on the direction of Avinash Bhosale. The search also found that Bhosale paid Rs 15.20 crore. He also received Rs 1.7 crore in unrecorded cash in the 2009-10 financial year. The IT official also noted that Indiabulls Group and his Bhosale made many unrecorded transactions during the year.
According to transaction records, the cash payment from Avinash Bhosale to Indiabulls Group was disguised as Rs 43.5 crore loan to Anamitra Properties, who was purchasing an apartment at Samta Coop HSG Society in Nariman Point.
This apartment was purchased by Ajoy Mehta in 2020. The same apartment was rented to Indiabulls Group for a rent of Rs 2,01,000 p/m, with one year’s rent prepaid.
The company Anamitra Properties Pvt Ltd had other directors, but shares in the apartment remained with Gokhale. Gokhale was reappointed to the company’s board to sell the apartment to Ajoy Mehta in 2020, according to the income tax authority.
An investigation revealed that the company Anamitra Properties was set up solely to purchase apartments. Ajoy Mehta was well aware that APPL was a sham entity. Anamitra Properties used the email address of the ABIL Group, which was owned by Bhosale.
When Ajoy Mehta purchased the property, the company had a debt of Rs 4.5 crore (a security deposit of Rs 6 crore deposited by Lucina Land Development in 2011).
He had a lien of Rs 4.5 lakh on the property, but neither party asked for NOC.
The apartment was rented to Lucina Land Development Ltd, a subsidiary of Indiabulls Real Estate, in 2010–2011 for Rs 5,000 per month and a Rs 6 crore security deposit. The loan was repaid to Indiabulls Financial Services in 2010-11 with a security deposit of Rs 5.82 crore.
In 2020-2021, the assets were sold to Ajoy Mehta for Rs 5.3 crore. And the deposit was returned to Lucina Land Development. Avinash Bhosale paid around Rs 250 crore for the renovation of the flat before it was sold to Mehta.
Indiabulls Groups stated: as far as Indiabulls are concerned, in the normal course of business under the Company’s loan products for properties, the property was mortgaged by the Company in 2008. And a loan of Rs.435 crore was made on the mortgaged property at an annual interest rate of Rs 18%.
Wrapping Up
In a statement, Indiabulls Group stated that the hypothesis mentioned regarding the purchase of the property was completely incorrect and without foundation.
More than a decade ago, in 2011, the entire loan plus interest was fully repaid. The mortgaged property was released after receiving the full loan amount.