By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Wednesday reserved its order on an application by Ashok Malhotra, the prime accused in the multi-million rupee land scam in the capital, seeking release from judicial custody and also restrained a lower court from passing any direction in this regard till its decision.
“No order would be passed by the special judge of lower court till Nov 30 when we would pass the order on Malhotra’s petition,” a bench comprising Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Reva Khetrapal said.
The accused submitted in his petition that he had already undergone custody for the maximum permissible limit of 90 days and the lower court’s order, remanding him to another 20 days in judicial custody, was illegal.
Special Judge S.K. Kaushik had remanded Malhotra and seven others to judicial custody till Dec 13 soon after they surrendered before him on the expiry of their interim bail.
“The judge did not take cognisance of my offence after the charge sheet was filed by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) on the 90th day of my custody. So on what basis he was further remanded to judicial custody,” senior advocate D.P. Mathur, appearing for Malhotra, contended.
Malhotra, who was arrested Aug 6, allegedly prepared fake and forged documents like ration cards, identity cards and bank documents in the name of non-existent applicants to garner chunks of plots meant to rehabilitate slum-dwellers.
The CBI had Nov 5 filed six charge sheets against Malhotra and others who had allegedly made tens of millions of rupees through irregularities in plot allotments in collusion with civic officials.