Senior bureaucrat Ranjeev R. Acharya said her mother purchased the third floor in a building in May 2006 when the real estate market was in a slump. In a rejoinder to two news items published in these columns — Acharya kin got property at low prices and Acharya and wife failed to reveal another property — Ms Acharya said the flat that her mother bought was unfurnished. Quoting the building’s owner, the bureaucrat said that the fifth floor was sold to one Mr Vijay K. Sajja and was fully furnished.
Ms Acharya’s mother bought the third floor for Rs 45 lakh while the fifth floor in the same complex was sold to Mr Vijay five months earlier for Rs 81,73,600. Ms Acharya said her mother sold her properties in Jalandhar, Punjab, in two phases for Rs 1.43 crore and this was used to buy the property in the city. In the gift deed executed in favour of her son, Nikhil Acharya, it is mentioned that the property will be enjoyed by her mother for her life time. “She gifted another property to my sister also,” she said adding that she and her husband did not reveal the details in the annual property returns since the property is not yet owned by their son.
Our Correspondent replies:
We stand by our report that Mr Acharya’s mother-in-law got property at a lower price. This newspaper did not attribute any motives to Mr Acharya’s family in acquiring property but reported mere facts based on documentary evidence. There was a real estate boom in May 2006 and not a slump as claimed by Ms Acharya. In the same complex, the owners sold the fourth floor on December 13, 2007, for Rs 95 lakh.