I-T Dept attaches assets worth Rs 1000 crore linked to Ajit Pawar

The Income Tax department has provisionally attached properties worth over Rs 1,000 crore in Goa,Delhi and Maharashtra allegedly linked to close aides of Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar, The attached properties include a cooperative sugar factory, according to officials. The action was taken by the I-T department after discovering an unaccounted income of about Rs184 crore last month during the massive search operation. Ajit Pawar and his family are the "beneficiaries of the above Benami properties," the Income Tax Department said, invoking the Anti-Benami Act and alleging that the properties were not bought illegally. 

The attached assets include Jarandeshwar Sugar Factory in Maharashtra’s Satara, an official premises in Mumbai, a flat in Delhi, a resort in Goa and land parcels at 27 different locations in Maharashtra. Last month, tax searches were conducted at the houses and firms owned by Pawar's sisters. Responding to the searches and raids, Pawar had insisted that all the entities  linked to him have regularly paid taxes. Former Union Minister Sharad Pawar had also hit out at the BJP over the searches linked to his nephew, calling it a "misuse of power".