DBU attaches immovable properties worth Rs 230 cr to Mayawati's ex-secy

New Delhi, Sep 24: The Delhi Benami Prohibition Unit (BPU) has provisionally attached 19 immovable properties of former secretary of Mayawati, Net Ram, to a probe. The 19 immovable properties spread across Delhi, Noida, Kolkata and Mumbai are said to be worth about Rs. 230 crore.

Net Ram is a retired IAS officer of UP cadre who had served as the secretary of Mayawati when she was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.

A provisional order of the attachment against Net Ram has been issued by the Delhi investigation unit of the department under section 24(3) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, they said.

The attached properties are both commercial and residential. The officer, who served in top positions during BSP supremo Mayawati's chief ministership, was first raided by the tax department in March this year.

It had seized cash worth over Rs 1.64 crore, Mont Blanc pens valued at Rs 50 lakh and four luxury SUVs after these searches and had claimed to have recovered documents related to 'benami' assets of the officer worth Rs 300 crore.

The Delhi unit of the department subsequently took over the case to probe under the anti-benami transaction law that had been lying inoperative since 1988 and was enforced from November, 2016 by the Modi government.