The Income-tax department has intensified its crackdown against alleged “benami” properties, as it attaches several land parcels in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district. These properties, intriguingly, are registered in the name of a BPL (below poverty line) card holder security guard, believed to be indirectly owned by the deceased gangster-politician, Atiq Ahmad.
This marks the initiation of action by the department’s Benami Prohibition Unit (BPU) based in Lucknow. The unit aims to unravel the network of ‘benami’ assets linked to Atiq Ahmad’s family and gang. The investigation revealed that many such properties were registered under individuals of limited financial means. Moreover, sales from these lands were believed to support Ahmad’s family post his demise.
In April, Atiq Ahmad, along with his brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, were shot dead during a health check-up convoy by police in Prayagraj.
The department’s findings spotlight Suraj Pal, a resident of Pipalgaon in the Prayagraj district, as the nominal owner, or ‘benamidar’, of over 40 land assets connected to Atiq Ahmad’s criminal empire. Pal, holding a BPL ration card, is identified as the security guard employed by the relative of Ahmad’s deceased brother. The I-T department has now provisionally attached land assets, worth over Rs 4.3 crore, associated with Pal after observing an inexplicable increase in his income from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 6.16 crore within five years.
This recent order seeks to curtail Pal’s rapid sale of these ‘benami’ properties and ties them to Atiq Ahmad, his kin, and associates. To build their case, the department conducted extensive data mining across multiple databases, including the UP Police and I-T records, to trace links between the security guard and Atiq Ahmad’s empire. Connections were made with Mohammad Ashraf, Pal’s employer and known associate of Ahmad, who was involved in several serious criminal activities. Both Ashraf and his father-in-law, Mohammad Rafiq alias Gulful, were also implicated in the abduction case of a key witness to the murder of MLA Raju Pal, where Ahmad and his brother were the prime suspects.
This intricate web of relations has allowed the department to anchor the ‘benami’ assets to Atiq Ahmad and assert a strong connection between the deceased gangster-politician and Mohammad Ashraf. This operation trails the I-T department’s earlier actions in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier in the year, they identified and seized assets worth about Rs 100 crore linked to another gangster-politician, Mukhtar Ansari, in an operation termed ‘Operation Panther’.
