BBMP team raids Mantri Square Mall, returns after seeing court stay order

BENGALURU: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike officials raided Mantri Square Mall in Malleswaram on Saturday to seize movable properties towards recovery of tax dues, but had to return empty-handed. The team, led by West zone Joint Commissioner Yogesh, accompanied by the police, Marshals and BBMP civic workers raided the mall, but were unaware of a stay order issued by a court.

Huge drama was witnessed as BBMP revenue officers seized movable properties and returned them later.

Major drama played out at the mall for more than two hours on Saturday. The officers and other BBMP workers seized and listed out movable properties such as laptops, chairs, tables, printing machines, photocopying machines and other materials from the office as they were unaware about the court stay order obtained by Mantri Mall. Then They later had to return bare handed after returning all the properties.

BBMP officers verifying the documents of Mantri Mall management.

Shabbir, who is part of the Mantri Square Mall management, said that the BBMP raid was illegal. “Abhishek Developers (part of Mantri group) and Propcare Property Management owe the tax dues, and not the Mantri Square Mall management”.

Shabbir of the Mantri Square Mall management displaying the court stay order copy.

He said, “They have chosen a Saturday intentionally because they know that we cannot approach the court. We secured a stay order from the court on February 2. This is just harass on us, and this is high-handedness of the  officers. The raids had happened earlier 2 -3 times. The BBMP actually served the notice to Abhishek Properties, but they have taken over all Propcare properties. We will continue our legal fight with the BBMP”.

BBMP Joint Commissioner Yogesh said they were not informed about the court stay order.

West zone Joint Commissioner Yogesh, before seizing the movable properties, said, “We are conducting a property tax collection drive at a massive level in in all eight zones of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike limits, under the instructions of the Chief Commissioner of BBMP. In the list of unpaid taxpayers, we have found tax dues by Mantri Square management of Rs 42.63 crore from 2018-19 fiscal year till this year. We have given intimation, served notices, but they did not respond. We came here to seize their properties. We will list out the moveable properties in the mall and take action according to the rules”.

After checking the court stay order, Yogesh said, “They showed us the stay order, issued by the court on February 2, an hour-and-a-half later. None of them brought it to our attention earlier. We are not supposed to disturb peace according the court instructions. We will go to court for further hearings and will return all the seized items”.