By IANS,
New Delhi : A city court Tuesday ordered the framing of charges against former minister of state for urban development P.K. Thungan in a case relating to out-of-turn allotment of houses to government employees during 1993-95.
“Prima facie, I find sufficient material to proceed with the criminal trial of all the accused persons,” said Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Judge R.K.Yadav, making it clear that none of the 18 accused, including the Congress leader, merited discharge from the case. Yadav posted the matter for Nov 1.
Besides Thungan, 17 others, including then additional personal secretary to urban development minister Sheila Kaul, were named by the CBI in 1996 for allegedly receiving illegal gratification from around 102 government employees for granting them out-of-turn accommodation.
The First Information Report was lodged Feb 14, 1996, following a Supreme Court order on a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the controversial government policy on house allotments.
According to the charge sheet, D.D. Arora, then additional personal secretary of Sheila Kaul, hatched a criminal conspiracy with his son Virender Arora and others and compelled government employees to pay them bribes for out-of-turn allotment of houses.