Kripashankar in trouble; properties raided, attached

Mumbai: On a day when the Supreme Court refused to give relief to tainted former Mumbai Congress Chief Kripashankar Singh in the disproportionate assets case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Mumbai swung into action and started the process of attaching the MLA's properties across the city.

From early Friday morning, SIT officers zeroed in on various locations across the city where 19 properties belonging to Kripashankar and his family are located. The SIT has to submit a compliance report to the Bombay High Court on April 19.

Moreover, CNN-IBN has exclusive access to documents pertaining to the alleged benami flats owned by Kripashankar's family.

For example, a 1,000 sq foot flat is in the name of Surendrapratap Singh, who is Kripashankar's brother-in-law. Another flat in the same building is in the name of Ramshankar Pandey, who is from Kripashankar's native village.

Among Kripashankar's alleged properties that are being attached are a bungalow on the posh Carter Road in Bandra (worth over Rs 40 crore), a 1,900 sq foot duplex flat in Vile Parle, a triplex flat on Mount Mary Road, Bandra (worth Rs 48 crore), commercial space in the Bandra-Kurla Complex measuring 22,000 sq feet (worth at least Rs 100 crore) and 250 acres of land in Ratnagiri (worth at least Rs 25 crore).

The SIT has also recovered a number of documents that could aid investigations into transactions through some 22 bank accounts of Kripashankar's family. The documents seized also help in making a concrete case regarding his hidden sources of income and tax evasions.

The Income Tax Department's scrutiny report states that Kripashankar's wife, who has no known sources of income, actually earned at least Rs 2.6 crore in four years. Untraceable for the last one week, all eyes are now on the vegetable seller turned millionaire politician from Mumbai.

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