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Politicians behind illegal constructions in Capital

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation has zeroed in on certain local politicians in the Capital who have allegedly abetted and pressured Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials to allow the builder mafia and individuals to raise unauthorised and illegal constructions.

Several junior, assistant and executive engineers have testified before the CBI during their interrogation that local level politicians had pressured them to look the other way when they objected to these constructions.

However, the investigating agency has to tie up several loose ends by gathering documentary evidence before it is able to charge-sheet these politicians and crack the politician-bureaucrat-builder-mafia nexus behind the unauthorised and illegal constructions in the Capital.

There is also the possibility that these politicians might have acted carefully and left no material evidence of their criminal acts or that the incriminating documents might have been destroyed after the Delhi High Court ordered the CBI to investigate the deadly nexus behind the unauthorised illegal constructions in 2006.

The CBI has so far filed 22 cases against several officials of the MCD under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code for indulging in corrupt practices by allowing builders to encroach upon public land and raise illegal constructions on them besides individuals who have raised unauthorised constructions for a consideration.

Of the cases registered so far, the CBI has filed charge-sheets in eight; another eight charge-sheets are ready; a probe is still in progress in another five cases; while one charge-sheet is pending before the competent authority for sanction of prosecution.

The CBI has detailed all these facts in a status report about the progress of investigation and filed a copy of it in a sealed cover in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday. It has so far filed seven reports pertaining to the matter.

Giving an idea of the extent of unauthorised and illegal constructions in the Capital, the CBI said that the report had only specimens of violations of the laws in all the 12 zones of the MCD. If a systematic survey of these properties were conducted, the number would be in thousands, it added.

The CBI said it had discovered three types of violations: unauthorised constructions without sanction; illegal constructions on public land; and illegal properties that have been demolished in the local body’s records but are still actually standing and are in commercial or residential use.

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