Stamp duty evasion of over Rs.1 bn detected, five held

Calcutta News.Net
Friday 4th July, 2008 (IANS)

A scam involving stamp duty evasion of over Rs.1 billion has been detected in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district, an official said here Friday.

Deepak Agarwal, district magistrate Ghaziabad, told a press conference here that a developer bought a large chunk of land and sold small plots, evading a stamp duty of over Rs.1 billion.

Agarwal said in 1984 about 1,300,000 square metres of land in Loni area was bought by Jeewan Singh and his associates, who planned an unauthorized colony and carved out small plots.

To evade the ceiling act on the excess land, Jeewan Singh his two sons, Pratap Chaudhary and Arjun Singh, floated three firms - Lotus Enterprises, Chaudhary Enterprises and Jeewan Enterprises and distributed the land among the three companies.

After forming three companies, they sold plots on the basis of power of attorney documents. This continued for several years and plots were sold twice-thrice and in some cases four times on the basis of the power of attorney.

The buyers did not take possession of the land and mutations were not executed in the revenue records, he said.

'After the detection of the scam, an FIR (First Information Report) has been registered,' said Deepak Ratan, senior superintendent of police.

Five people - Wazid, Chappoo, Manish, Gulfam and Shahzad - have been arrested and raids were being conducted to nab the others from their residences in Delhi, he said.

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