Maya assets rose 30 times in 3 yrs

On Wednesday, Mayawati offered an interesting explanation for the quantum jump in her assets: these were acquired with money given by her party workers who were agitated after she was “framed” by the BJP in the Taj Corridor and the disproportionate assets case. She said her new acquisitions were in the record of the Income-Tax Department.

And she thanked the BJP for her new-found wealth: “In 2003, I had nothing and today I have so much. For this, the credit goes to the BJP.”

Mayawati’s assets in 2004 included Rs 42.44 lakh in cash, bank balance and ornaments, plus residential buildings worth Rs 1.25 crore. These buildings are all in Inderpuri colony of Delhi where her parents live.

In her latest affidavit, filed on June 25, she has admitted owning properties worth Rs 37.82 crore, Rs 50.27 lakh in cash, Rs 12.88 lakh in deposits in banks, financial and non-financial institutions, gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 49.75 lakh, silverware worth Rs 1,12,480 and murals worth Rs 15 lakh.

Her new properties are all in posh areas. Two in New Delhi’s commercial hotspot Connaught Place, another commercial property in Okhla, one house on New Delhi’s Sardar Patel Marg, and another on Nehru Road in Lucknow. The actual worth of these properties may be much more than that shown in the affidavit.

Incidently, when Mayawati admitted having assets worth Rs 1.67 crore, the CBI had, in a status report to the Supreme Court in the disproportionate assets case, stated that she actually owned assets worth Rs 28 crore. The case is alive and the CBI is yet to apply for permission to prosecute her.

According to Mayawati, the BJP got her framed in the Taj case and for owning assets disproportionate to her known sources of income because they “wanted to keep 60 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats which I refused to accept”.

The BJP’s action “agitated my party worker who decided to give me money”, and authorised her to use it in whatever way she liked. “They said you buy bungalows in Delhi and Lucknow which I did, and now all this property is in the open and it is listed with the Income-Tax Department,” she said.

Mayawati’s property in Lucknow — 3, Nehru Road — is spread over 1,200 sq m. It was bought by Mayawati in 2005 from an Army personnel Gullu Chandani for Rs 97.42 lakh. Today, it is worth more than Rs 2 crore. The building is being renovated, and work has been going on for the last one-and-a-half year.