11 fresh cases registered against Baba Ramdev’s trust

Eleven fresh cases of stamp duty evasion have been registered against Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust by the Uttarakhand government, spelling more trouble for the Yoga guru.

All the eleven cases registered pertain to stamp duty evasion and date back eight years or more, Haridwar District Magistrate Nidhi Pandey, on whose permission the cases were lodged, said. With the registration of the new cases, the total number of cases registered against the Trust owned by the Yoga guru in Uttarakhand have risen to 96 out of which 81 were lodged together last month and four earlier this month, she said.

Majority of the cases have been registered for alleged violation of the Indian Stamps Act, while over two dozen of the cases pertain to violation of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms (ZALR) Act, she said.

When 81 cases were lodged against Ramdev’s Trust for gross violation of land laws last month, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna had said several of the properties held by the Patanjali Trust had turned out to be benami transactions with no trace of the owners.