Former minister in the Akhilesh Yaday’s cabinet Gayatri Prajapati, already in jail in an alleged rape case and also for large-scale irregularities in the Mining department, found himself in trouble again as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached his ‘benami’ property worth several crore.
Sources said that the ED took possession of the benami land in Inderjit Kheda locality of Mohanlalganj here on Tuesday. The land was taken by Prajapati in the name of his servant Ram Sahay. Significantly, on Monday too, the ED had taken possession of a large part of the land.
So far, the ED has attached assets worth Rs 90 crore of Prajapati in Mumbai, Amethi, Sultanpur, Lucknow and Kanpur. The action is being taken against Prajapati in connection with the money-laundering case. A notice has also been put up stating that the property is in the possession of the Enforcement Directorate, Government of India, under Section 8(4) of the Money Laundering Act 2002. Any transfer on this land will be illegal and strict legal action will be taken against the trespasser. This notice has been put on behalf of the Deputy Director of ED. On this the address of Lucknow zone office of ED has also been written.
Meanwhile, sleuths of the Special Task Force (STF) questioned former Cabinet minister and SP MLC Swami Prasad Maurya in his office for three hours. Maurya was served a notice in connection with the alleged involvement of his former private secretary Arman Khan in duping unemployed youth.
Five people, including Arman, were arrested by the STF on April 21 last. Sources said that Maurya avoided answering many questions of the STF. He continued to claim that he did not have any information.
Arman had allegedly called the unemployed youth while he was the personal secretary of Maurya, the then cabinet minister both in the BSP government and later in the BJP government.
He was alleged to have collected Rs 10-12 lakh from each candidate in the name of facilitating them government jobs. Many people were given appointment letters and also undertook training but it later turned out that they were forged letters.
When the youth staged a protest, they were threatened by Arman. Later, when the government learnt of the forgery, they constituted a probe under the STF which finally arrested Arman and his four accomplices Faizi, Vishal, Asghar and Amit from Gorakhpur.
A senior official, on the condition of anonymity, said that if needed, Maurya would be called again for a detailed interrogation.
It may be mentioned that Maurya left the BJP and joined the Samajwadi Party during the last assembly elections. Prior to that, Swami had been in the BSP for a long time. This time Maurya contested from Fazilnagar in Kushinagar but was defeated. He was later elected unopposed as MLC on the SP ticket.