Shell Firm Director Who Sold Nariman Point Flat to RERA Chief Linked to Group Under ED Lens: Report

The Nariman Point apartment of Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Maha RERA) Chairman and CM Uddhav Thackeray’s aide Ajoy Mehta, which is under the Income Tax scanner for alleged benami transactions, was sold to him by director of Anamitra Properties Pvt Ltd Nikhil Ketan Gokhale, official records have revealed.

Gokhale is on the board of at least seven entities promoted by Pune-based businessman Avinash Bhosale of ABIL Group, who is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case pertaining to the purchase and construction of a commercial building in Pune on a plot meant for houses for bureaucrats, the Indian Express reported.

Gokhale was appointed as a director of Anamitra Properties in October 2008, according to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) records of December 2020. He has given (an) ABIL Group email address in company records.

Bhosale is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) over a transaction pertaining to the purchase and construction of a commercial building in Pune on a plot meant for the construction of houses for bureaucrats.

Last month, the ED had seized assets worth over Rs 40 crore belonging to Bhosale and his family members in a separate investigation under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), the report said.

Income Tax sources told CNN-News18 that Mehta — former state chief secretary — had purchased the flat, which is about 1,076 square feet, last year for Rs 5.33 crore from a company called Anamitra Properties Private Limited, which in turn acquired the same in the year 2009 for Rs 4 crore.

The IT department alleges that this is a shell company as it has found out that the two shareholders live in a small chawl in Mumbai. They have been identified as Kamesh Nathuni Singh, who doesn’t have IT returns that have been filed, and Shyam Narayan Yadav, who lives in a chawl near Oberoi Mall, Western Express Highway.

What led to the suspicion of the IT department was that it found during its preliminary probe that the shareholders are people with very low income and didn’t have the capacity to purchase properties worth crores such as this flat.

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