The sleuths of Income Tax Department questioned jailed gangster and former MLA Mukhtar Ansari, sources confirmed here on Friday.
The 60-year-old Ghazipur-born don-turned-politician was interrogated inside the Banda jail on Thursday, where he is currently lodged.
The sources said that a five-member Income Tax Department team, headed by an officer of deputy commissioner rank, quizzed Ansari about illegal properties during the five-hour-long interrogation.
“We also asked Ansari about his absconding wife Afshan Ansari. He did not answer any of the questions properly. We were not satisfied with his replies,” a source from the Income Tax Department said.
The Income Tax Department is investigating about 23 illegal properties of Mukhtar Ansari and his family, which are worth approximately Rs 125 crore. The Income Tax Department had attached two properties worth Rs 20 crore of Ganesh Dutt at Kapurpur in Ghazipur district on May 11 this year. The confiscated properties were bought in the name of Ganesh Dutt Mishra, a close aide of Ansari.
The IT officials had called Mishra for questioning, but he did not appear. After this, the Ghazipur police arrested Mishra on June 20 and handed him over to the Income Tax Department, which then questioned him for two days.
The IT Department had sought permission from the MP/MLA court to interrogate Mukhtar Ansari. The department had also sent notices to Afshan Ansari, but she too did not appear for questioning.
It may be mentioned that Ansari’s real estate business was going on under the supervision of Ganesh Dutt Mishra. Many properties were registered by Mukhtar in the name of many of his close friends, including Mishra, sources in the IT Department confirmed.
They claimed that this made it difficult to ascertain on the basis of blood relations that the property belonged to Mukhtar Ansari only. At present, 23 properties worth about Rs 125 crore are under investigation.