Income Tax Department raids on Land and Real Estate Traders

The Income tax sleuths raided two dozen locations in the Deoghar and Godda districts belonging to real estate and liquor firms.

The move comes amid the ongoing interrogation of liquor trader Yogendra Tiwari by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the land and liquor frauds.

IT officials from Patna and Dhanbad fanned out to the targeted places belonging to the temple town’s high-profile personalities at 5 am, which is currently ongoing.

The raids are said to have been linked to the illegal sale of vast tracts of land and other properties, including a Deoghar-based Dharmshala named after the then-queen of the Pithoriya Ghaat royal family of Kolkata in 1940, by the violators by tampering with the records.

In response to the raids in the temple town, Godda BJP MP Nishikant Dubey stated, via his Twitter handle, that the scandal involving the unlawful sale of such properties is worth more than Rs. 1,000 crore.

Dubey was the whistleblower in the alleged sale of “devottar” (meant for the god) lands in the temple town in collusion with local governmental stakeholders and land mafias.

Former Deoghar Municipal Corporation mayor Rajnarayan Khawade alias Bablu Khawade and his cronies, including Umashankar Singh and Sanjay Malviya, are among individuals whose homes and businesses are being searched.

Apart from Khawade’s Hritik Raj Hotel and other sites, the IT department raided Sanjay Malviya’s Hotel Anjula Mansion and his flat.

Three installations of one Brajesh Rai, reported to be involved in real estate, and hospital companies, including Jasidih-based Siyaram Hospital and residential properties in Simariya and Saint Francis Mission Street, have been searched.

Other locations where IT raids have taken place include the homes of prominent contractor Mukesh Bajaj in Deoghar and Godda, as well as those of JMM leader Nandkishor Das.

“The violators also caused huge loss to the state revenue in terms of minimising the cost of the land registration,” the Godda MP said, adding that they had earlier warned that illegally occupied devottar lands be handed over to the respective trusts to evade legal recourse. “Having allegedly raised huge amounts by the illegal sale of land and other properties of the Charushila and few other such trusts situated in the prime locations of the temple town,” the MP claimed.