By IANS
New Delhi : City-based contractor Ashok Malhotra, the main suspect in a multimillion rupee land scam, was arrested Monday outside a television news channel, while three Delhi ministers were summoned by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to explain their role in an alleged conspiracy to use Malhotra and topple the Sheila Dikshit government.
Malhotra, who had kept the investigating agency on the run for a few days, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) outside Zee News studio on the outskirts of the capital, where he surfaced to give an interview. He had offered to surrender on condition that he would be interrogated only in the presence of his legal advisers.
Meanwhile, three state cabinet ministers – Haroon Yousuf, Harvinder Singh Lovely and A.K. Walia – were summoned to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence at 10, Janpath, after their names figured in media reports for allegedly hatching a conspiracy in collusion with Malhotra to topple the Sheila Dikshit government.
The ruling Congress party in Delhi is clearly divided between pro and anti-Dikshit camps. After the raid on Mahotra’s house last week, some anti-Dikshit leaders had told the media informally that Malhotra had been allotted VIP number plates for his cars on the basis of recommendations from the chief minister’s office. Dikshit had then termed this a political conspiracy and had threatened to expose the dissidents after the CBI ended its probe.
CBI Director Vijay Shankar said that no one found involved in the scam would be spared.
“No one will be spared. Anybody of any stature found to have played a role (in the land scam) would not be spared. All that’s possible is being done to unravel the scam,” Vijay Shankar told a press conference to a question on Malhotra’s alleged collusion with politicians and bureaucrats.
“The case is in a premature stage and investigations are underway. Let the law take it own course,” he added.
Asked why the agency had not arrested Malhotra for almost two hours while he was being interviewed by the news channel, the CBI chief declined to answer.
Malhotra was present in the studio of Zee News at a time when the investigating agency was conducting raids at possible hideouts in and around the capital.
“We arrested Malhotra from outside Zee News studio. He will be produced in a court shortly to seek his remand,” a senior CBI official said.
Malhotra told the channel he had been hiding in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana as he feared for his life.
“I have no political connections and have been wrongly framed in the scam. I should be immediately provided security as I fear a threat to my life,” he told the channel.
“There is a big political conspiracy going on in the state and I have been made a scapegoat,” he said.
The chhola bhatura vendor-turned multi millionaire, who has a fleet of swanky cars, also confessed he has a fascination for fancy VIP number plates and had taken the help of state legislators Surender Singh Bittu and Kanwar Karan Singh to get the numbers from the state transport ministry.
“They (Bittu and Singh) are good friends and helped me in acquiring the VIP numbers for my cars,” he said.
Malhotra, who still runs a canteen in the Delhi Secretariat premises, denied media reports that he has more than Rs.1 billion.
He admitted to owning at least 17 cars and five motorbikes in his name.
“I challenge the CBI to prove that I have more than Rs.10 crore (Rs.100 million). I also demand that the investigating agency show to the media the papers of the 5,000 plots that it says I have sold to wrong hands.”
On Saturday, a special CBI court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Malhotra after he failed to appear before the investigating agency.
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 for allotment to displaced slum-dwellers in northwest Delhi’s Dheerpur area at exorbitant prices.
The CBI probe began after he figured along with the five DDA officials for the illegal allotment of plots under fictitious names.
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 week, 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.