Lucknow: Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached properties worth Rs 73.43 lakh property on Saturday. The land and commercial building were situated in Mau and Ghazipur.
ED said the properties were acquired by son of Mukhtar Ansari and Mau MLA, Abbas Ansari, at undervalued consideration of Rs. 71.94 lakh as against government rate of Rs. 6.23 crore and Rs 1.5 lakh in bank account of Mukhtar Ansari under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 in case of Mukhtar Ansari.
ED said that in June 2021, a case of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act was first registered against Mukhtar Ansari, based on FIR lodged in UP’s Mau under sections of IPC and the Prevention of Damage to Public Properties Act. During the probe, the names of Abbas and Atif had surfaced.
ED sources also added that a name had surfaced of an individual, Sapra, who was a partner in M/s Vikas Constructions, in which, Mukhtar Ansari and his father-in-law Jamshed Raza, along with Abbas Ansari, were partners. The money diverted from this firm was used for personal purposes, including foreign visits and purchase of guns by Abbas.
During a probe into financial transactions of Aaghaaz Constructions, in which Mukhtar’s wife Afshan Ansari holds 1,500 shares, father-in-law Jamshed Raza has 3,425 shares and son Abbas Ansari holds 19,170 shares; it surfaced that Sapra invested money in the firm and then transacted through several shell companies.
The company had taken a loan of Rs 1.06 crore in the name of Mishra from Union Bank of India and a property worth Rs 90 lakh belonging to another aide of Mukhtar, Ganesh Dutt Mishra, was mortgaged.
