Rs 1.64 crore recovered from UP’s top ex-official

New Delhi, March 13 (IANS) The Income Tax department has recovered cash worth Rs 1.64 crore, four luxury vehicles, Mont Blanc pens worth Rs 50 lakh and incriminating documents investments in benami properties worth Rs 225 crore linked to a former top bureaucrat of Uttar Pradesh, who served during Mayawati's tenure in the state.

A senior IT department official told IANS that several teams of IT department carried out searches at over a dozen places in four cities of the former Uttar Pradesh top bureaucrat Net Ram in Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata and Mumbai after receiving credible information.

The official said that it recovered cash to the tune of Rs 1.64 crore from his three residences in Delhi and Lucknow.

According to the official, the search at the premises of Net Ram started on Tuesday morning and ended on Wednesday afternoon.

The official said that during the searches, the tax sleuths also recovered four luxury vehicles, including one Mercedes Benz, and two Toyota Fortuners, Mont Blanc pens worth Rs 50 lakh and documents of properties indicating illegal assets worth Rs 225 crore.

He said the authorities also recovered documents related to 30 shell companies routed through Kolkata with the family members of Net Ram being the share holders.

The official said that during searches, the authorities also found details of six properties located in upscale areas of Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai worth Rs 95 crore which was bought from the bogus share capital through Kolkata-based shell companies.

The official said the former bureaucrat, who served under Mayawati between 2002-03 as secretary came under the tax scanner after he was found to be approaching the BSP for a Lok Sabha ticket from the state.