Records accessed by The Sunday Express show that Mayawati’s purchases of properties in the toniest residential and commercial addresses of the Capital span a period between 2004 and 2006 and amount to Rs 21.12 crore in cheque payments.

Significantly, her new shopping spree came just when the CBI finalized its case of disproportionate assets against her and informed the Supreme Court, in a 15-page report, that the value of her disproportionate assets was over Rs 28 crore. That file is now on the backburner and the CBI is yet to seek sanction for prosecution.

Records show:

• Her latest and most sprawling purchase was on July 21, 2006, when Mayawati paid Rs 17 crore and another Rs 1.02 crore in stamp and transfer duty to buy a 2194.4-square yard plot on 2, Sardar Patel Marg in Chanakyapuri.

The sale agreement was executed between Mayawati and Homender Arora, Director of M/s HMP Delhi Enclave Private Limited. Mayawati paid Rs 5 crore through cheque number 563141 (Bank of India, Parliament Street) on July 14, followed by another Rs 12 crore pay order (No: 062024) on July 17 on the same bank. This property was purchased by HMP from one Mrs Nagat Abedi for Rs 12.96 crore on May 11, 2004.

Incidentally, it was on July 15 that Mayawati announced her first list of 200 probable candidates for the Uttar Pradesh elections nine months ahead.

• In 2004, Mayawati made her first big property deal in Delhi buying 3268.2 square feet of commercial space in B-15, Inner Circle, Connaught Place. She bought the ground and a portion of mezzanine floor from one Mr Hari Om Gulati at the cost Rs 1.90 crore on December 20, 2004. The payment for the property was done through cheque number 558798, drawn on Bank of India, Parliament Street, New Delhi.

The original owners of this space were M/s I.A.G. Promoters and Developers Private Limited, who had partly rented this property to M/s Bata India Limited. I.A.G. Promoters sold the above space to Hari Om Gulati by a sale deed executed on November 29, 2004. Gulati, in turn, sold it to Mayawati the very next month. The fact is that M/s Bata India is a tenant of Mayawati as she is getting rent since the day she purchased the property.

• A year later, Mayawati purchased the first floor of the same building with an area of 4535.02 square feet from M/s A.R.D. Developers Private Limited through a sale deed dated November 15, 2005. While the deed was for Rs 1.2 crore, Mayawati shelled out another Rs 7.2 lakh towards transfer duty.

• On November 7, 2006, Mayawati let out this space to M/s DLF Home Developers Limited for a monthly rent of Rs 6.80 lakh. Significantly, the right to construct the mezzanine floor, records show, has been gifted by one Rati Ram to Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar through gift deed on February 10, 2004. The value of the gift is Rs 80 lakh. This area is also given on rent to the developer company.