Fictitious-name benami transactions permit attachment of routed funds when cumulative evidence remains unrebutted by the benefiting participant.

Transactions conducted in the name of a non-existent or fictitious entity may constitute benami transactions under the fictitious-name limb of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988. The analysis states that non-filing of tax returns alone is insufficient, but cumulative evidence-such as an untraceable supplier, failed verification, inconsistent GST profile, unavailable banking trail, and lack of supply records-can discharge the respondents' initial burden. Where affected parties do not reliably rebut that material, routed funds may be provisionally attached, including in the bank account of a person found to have orchestrated and benefited from the fictitious arrangement.

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Issues: (i) whether the impugned transactions shown as purchases from M/s Sanmati Trading Co. constituted benami transactions carried out in a fictitious name under Section 2(9)(B) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988; (ii) whether the provisional attachment of the amount lying in the appellants' bank account was valid, including the objection that attachment could not be made in the hands of the beneficial owner and that the burden of proving benami transaction remained solely on the respondents.

Issue (i): whether the impugned transactions shown as purchases from M/s Sanmati Trading Co. constituted benami transactions carried out in a fictitious name under Section 2(9)(B) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988.

Analysis: Section 2(9)(B) covers a transaction or arrangement in respect of property carried out or made in a fictitious name. Non-filing of income-tax returns by itself was treated as insufficient to prove fictitious existence, but the matter was decided on the cumulative effect of surrounding circumstances. The material relied upon included the non-existence of the stated entity at the given address, repeated non-service of summons, failure of physical verification, inconsistency between the GST registration profile of the entity and the alleged supply of clothes and fabrics, inability to trace the alleged banking trail of the supplier, absence of credible supporting documents for supply and delivery, and failure of the appellants to rebut these circumstances with reliable evidence. On that evidentiary foundation, the initial burden stood discharged by the respondents and the appellants failed to displace it.

Conclusion: The transactions were rightly treated as benami transactions in a fictitious name under Section 2(9)(B) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, against the appellants and in favour of the respondent.

Issue (ii): whether the provisional attachment of the amount lying in the appellants' bank account was valid, including the objection that attachment could not be made in the hands of the beneficial owner and that the burden of proving benami transaction remained solely on the respondents.

Analysis: The attachment challenge was examined in the context of the finding that the alleged purchase payments were part of a fictitious routing arrangement and that the money was effectively returning to the appellants. Once the respondents established the factual basis showing a fictitious transaction, the appellants were required to explain and rebut the material, which they failed to do. The objection that attachment could be made only in the hands of the benamidar was not accepted because the case fell under Section 2(9)(B), where the transaction itself was found to be fictitious, making attachment in the hands of the person orchestrating and benefiting from the fictitious arrangement legally sustainable.

Conclusion: The provisional attachment of the amount in the appellants' bank account was valid, against the appellants and in favour of the respondent.

Final Conclusion: The confirmation of provisional attachment was sustained because the alleged purchase arrangement was proved to be a fictitious-name transaction and the routed funds were lawfully attachable in the hands of the persons benefiting from that arrangement.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a transaction is shown through cumulative objective circumstances to have been carried out in the name of a non-existent or fictitious entity, it falls within Section 2(9)(B) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, and once the initiating authority discharges the initial burden, the failure of the affected party to rebut the material justifies confirmation of attachment even in the hands of the beneficial participant in the fictitious arrangement.

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