New Delhi:
The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday attached lands, a building and bank deposits worth more than Rs 73.43 lakh as part of a money laundering investigation against Uttar Pradesh gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari.
The attached properties include land measuring 1,538 sq. ft. situated at arazi no. 604, Mauja Rajdepur Dehati, Tehsil Sadar in Ghazipur district apart from a commercial building constructed over it, and a plot of land measuring 6,020 sq. ft. situated at arazi no. 169 in Mauja Jahangirabad, Pargana under Tehsil-Sadar in Mau district, the agency said in a statement.
The total registered value of these properties is Rs 73,43,900.
These properties were acquired by Abbas Ansari (Mukhtar Ansari’s son) at an “undervalued consideration of Rs 71.94 lakh as against government rate of Rs 6.23 crore”, it said.
In addition, Rs 1.5 lakh in the form of bank account deposits of Mukhtar Ansari have also been attached after a provisional order was issued by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), it said.
The money laundering case against Mukhtar Ansari stems from multiple FIRs registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
“Mukhtar Ansari and his family members usurped government land and built a warehouse over it. The warehouse was hired on rent by Food Corporation of India Limited and rent was paid to the family members of Mukhtar Ansari,” it said.
The ED had earlier attached seven immovable properties with a book value of Rs 1.5 crore (in the form of a plot of lands in district Mau and Jalaun) belonging to Mukhtar Ansari’s wife Afshan Ansari and Vikas Construction, a firm controlled by Mukhtar Ansari and his family.
Mukhtar Ansari, Abbas Ansari (a sitting MLA from Mau Sadar constituency) and Mukhtar Ansari’s brother-in-law Atif Raza have been arrested by the ED in this case till now even as the agency has filed a charge sheet against them before a court.
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