The Hindu : New Delhi News : Charge-sheet filed in Delhi land scam

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Sunday, Nov 18, 2007
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Charge-sheet filed in Delhi land scam

Staff Reporter

The accused fraudulently allotted 180 plots meant for displaced slum dwellers, alleges CBI

Each MCD official allegedly received a bribe of Rs.10,000 per plot from Malhotra for the job
“Even the applications of the mentioned allottees were not available”

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday filed a charge-sheet against contractor Ashok Malhotra, a retired Additional Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Delhi, and ten others in the multi-crore Delhi land scam case.

Case registered

The agency had on August 16 registered the case against Ashok Malhotra, Ashok Jain, the then Director S.N.S. Sidhu, Deputy Director Phillip Toppo, Assistant Director Sumer Chand Garg and upper division clerk Atul Vashisht of the Slum and Jhuggi Jhonpri Department of MCD, and Assistant Engineer Sher Singh and Junior Engineer Khandelwal.

All the accused persons have been charged under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of a valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using a forged document as genuine) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Conspiracy

According to the CBI, investigations revealed that the accused officials, along with retired MCD Additional Commissioner Bhubneshwar Singh, entered into a criminal conspiracy with Malhotra and his accomplices Ashok Jain, Lalmani, Ram Chander Arora and then Delhi Assembly Under Secretary R.S. Sandhu, fraudulently allotted 180 Molarband Phase II plots that were meant for displaced slum dwellers.

Each MCD official allegedly received a bribe of Rs.10,000 per plot from Malhotra for the job.

The CBI found that even the applications of the mentioned allottees were not available.

The plots allotted on forged papers were allegedly disposed of by Malhotra and Ashok Jain at rates ranging from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.3 lakh.

Forged papers

The agency has alleged that forged documents for the purpose were prepared by Lalmani and the others at Malhotra’s behest.

The court of Special Judge (CBI) S.K. Kaushik fixed November 23 as the next date of hearing for consideration of the charge-sheet and directed the accused who are out on interim bail to appear in the court before it that day.

Earlier, on November 5, the CBI had filed a charge-sheet against Malhotra, R. S. Sandhu and six officials of the Delhi Development Authority in the Dheerpur Phase-I land scam case.

The agency registered the case on July 24 charging Malhotra and others with fraudulently getting allotted plots meant for rehabilitation of slum dwellers displaced from Hudson Line and Outrom Line in 1983-84.

In that case, the agency seized 17 luxury cars, six two-wheelers and found over a hundred bank accounts allegedly belonging to Malhotra having a balance of about Rs.2 crore.

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