BJP alleges Mayawati’s brother owns airline, demands probe

Lucknow : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s brother owns a private airline and sought a probe into its funding, alleging it seemed a case of money laundering with “money looted from the state exchequer”.

BJP leader and the party’s Scam Expose Committee convenor Kirit Somaiya furnished documents suggesting that Mayawati’s younger brother Anand Kumar was the owner of Indiana Air Pvt Ltd, a private airline registered in New Delhi.

“The aviation firm is a part of Anand Kumar group of companies, which include a consortium of some 300 fake firms,” he alleged.

Claiming that the companies involved huge funding to the tune of thousands of crores, Somaiya has demanded a high-level probe into the funding and source of finances of each of the companies.

“Obviously, this is a fit case of money laundering. After all, who does all the money belong to? I am sure it is money looted from the state exchequer of Uttar Pradesh,” Somaiya alleged.

“I have enough documentary evidence to substantiate my charges,” Somaiya added.

No clarification has come in this regard from the Mayawati camp, which is otherwise extremely prompt in refuting the smallest of allegations levelled against the chief minister.

Somaiya furnished the memorandum of association and articles of association of the company, which clearly spell out “air transport services” as the company’s business.

Indiana Air Pvt Ltd. is described as an aviation company with wide scope to carry out business across the world and entitlement to run all kinds of air transport services, including chartered services besides “any other trade or business to facilitate or is auxiliary to or is associated with that business”.

The scope of business also includes “buying, selling, hiring, repair or manufacturing of aircraft”.

According to Somaiya, Indiana Air Pvt Ltd. is “directly linked to a web of companies owned by Anand Kumar and his wife Vichitra Lata, whose only child is known to be very close to Mayawati”.

While the aviation company was registered in 2010, the cluster of other companies were registered in 2011 in Mumbai. Among these were SDS Farmlands Pvt Ltd, SDS Housing Pvt Ltd, DKP Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Agroba Savings Ltd, Frontage Investments and Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd.

“The glaring linkage between each of these different companies and Anand Kumar is established by the fact that most of the directors of the companies were common and they included either Anand Kumar or his wife,” the BJP leader alleged.