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Slums director remanded to CBI custody

NEW DELHI: A court here on Friday remanded the Director of Slums in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, S.N.S. Sidhu, who is an accused in the Molarband rehabilitation plots scam involving alleged kingpin Ashok Malhotra, to seven-day custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Another accused in the case, MCD Deputy Director Phillip Toppo, was remanded to 14-day judicial custody.

Special Judge S.K. Kaushik allowed Sidhu’s custodial interrogation after the CBI told the court that it needed to recover certain files that had not been found so far in Sidhu’s office. Also, the agency needed to confront him with Malhotra.

According to the CBI, Sidhu, who was arrested on Thursday night, was an active part of the scam in which plots of land meant for rehabilitation of slum dwellers were allotted to non-existent people using fraudulent means and then sold at exorbitant rates in the open market.

Sidhu’s counsel Ashutosh Lohia told the court that the CBI plea for custodial interrogation was uncalled for as the accused had cooperated with the agency and had already been subjected to interrogation in the last few days. Also, the CBI has recovered every possible document from his client, the counsel pleaded with the court.

However, the Judge allowed the custodial interrogation saying the case was at a very early stage and needed to be investigated in detail.

About Toppo, the CBI counsel said investigations pertaining to his involvement in the scam were complete. Toppo has been accused of forging documents to allot the plots under fictitious names which Malhotra later sold at high rates.

The same court on Thursday had remanded canteen manager Ravinder Singh Sandhu, who was accused in the scam involving Malhotra in the Dheerpur rehabilitation plots scam, to 14-day judicial custody.

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