By IANS
New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday raided the premises of officials belonging to the capital’s civic body, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), for their alleged role in a multi-million land scam.
“We have conducted raids at four top MCD officials and a private contractor at 12 places, including Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Noida, for their alleged involvement in the land scam case,” said a CBI official.
Those raided included MCD Director S.N.S. Sidhu, personal secretary to Additional Commissioner A.B. Shukla, junior engineer Nan Chand Khandelwal, a deputy director and a private contractor, Ashok Jain, the official said.
Though some incriminating documents have been seized, no details were made available.
The CBI late Thursday also arrested R.S. Sidhu, manager of the Delhi Secretariat canteen run by prime accused Ashok Malhotra.
Earlier this month, Malhotra had been remanded to 14 days in CBI custody after he was arrested outside a television news channel office in Noida, where he had surfaced for an interview Aug 7.
Malhotra, known for his proximity to some key Delhi politicians, had allegedly siphoned off millions of rupees in association with five Delhi Development Authority (DDA) officials and a private contractor by selling plots meant to be allotted to displaced slum-dwellers in northwest Delhi’s Dheerpur area at exorbitant prices.
According to CBI sources, Malhotra was also involved in selling plots under other resettlement schemes of DDA to people with fake identities. The scam reportedly took place between 2000 and 2002.
During its raids on his home in Mukherjee Nagar last month, the CBI claimed to have found several incriminating documents related to the land scam, Rs.1.7 million in cash, seven kg of gold and at least 50 luxury cars and 10 motorcycles – all bearing VIP number plates.
The CBI had last month registered a case against five DDA officers – deputy directors K.S. Verma and A.K. Mishra, assistant director J.R. Gaur and assistant engineers Shyam Babu and S.K. Sharma – for their alleged role in the scam.