Maya's friend and liquor baron, Ponty Chadha raided

New Delhi, Feb 1: After the various allegations pointed towards Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati, looks like there is trouble in the pipeline for her friends as well. Maya's close aide and liquor baron Gurpreet Chadha alias Ponty Chadha has been raided by the Income Tax Department on Wednesday morning.

Raids were carried out in around 17 places that belonged to Chadha by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation of Income Tax. The officials swooped down in on Chadha's properties in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, including his multiplexes in Noida and a sprawling 13 acre farm house in Chattarpur.

Ponty is famous in UP as the sole liquor distributor in the state. The Income Tax sources have alleged that each bottle sold by Ponty is marked above the MRP. The margin of the same is shared between Ponty and UP politicians. There are also media reports that Ponty's close aide Lalit Kapoor alias Sweety, who takes care of the finances was also raided. His Punjab operations are also under the I-T radar.

Utilizing his proximity to Mayawati, Chadha had expanded his business empire to real estate, sugar mills and film production. He was able to get land at throwaway prices from the UP government across Noida to build multiplexes, commercial establishments like Wave in Noida and Genesis School.

Meanwhile, the conduct of the officials carrying out the raids is being closely monitored. Ponty has already been indicted by the UP CAG in the purchase of 5 sugar mills in UP at throwaway price by duplicate tenders. The I-T officials are also probing the flow of money from UAE that was revealed in the books of the group.

OneIndia News