By IANS
New Delhi : City-based contractor Ashok Malhotra, the main suspect in a multimillion rupee land scam, was arrested Monday while Congress president Sonia Gandhi met detractors of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and asked them to explain allegations that they were involved in a conspiracy to topple the city government in collusion with Malhotra.
Malhotra, who had kept the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the run for a few days, was arrested from outside the 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, Gandhi met Delhi ministers Haroon Yusuf, A.K. Walia and Arvinder Singh Lovely, all now believed to be in the anti-Dikshit camp, following allegations by supporters of the chief minister that the dissidents were involved in a plot to oust her.
Gandhi is believed to have ruled out any change of guard in Delhi.
In the meeting, also attended by party general secretary in charge of Delhi Ashok Gehlot and Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, the Congress president reportedly asked the Delhi leaders to stay united behind the chief minister and defend the party in the countdown to the important assembly elections in 2008.
The Congress national leadership has ruled out any threat to the Delhi government following the rift in the state unit between supporters and detractors of Dikshit.
According to sources, the national leadership advised the ministers to train their guns on the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) instead, during whose rule the alleged land scam had taken place.
The three ministers and other senior leaders Jagdish Tytler and union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken – all said to be in the anti-chief minister lobby – had earlier met Gehlot to explain the situation.
The pro-Dikshit camp has alleged that Yusuf, Walia and Lovely were in close contact with Ashok Malhotra, a chhola bhatura vendor who made millions by allegedly grabbing plots meant for slum dwellers and selling it off illegally.
The ministers were alleged to have been using Malhotra’s money to instigate a revolt against Dikshit.
However, Gehlot said there was no danger either to Dikshit or to the party. “There is no danger to the Delhi government or the Congress. I don’t consider this (the arrest of Malhotra) to be of any significance to us,” he told reporters here.
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 retaliated by terming the allegations a political conspiracy and had threatened to expose the dissidents after the CBI ended its probe.
CBI Director Vijay Shankar told reporters after Malhotra’s arrest 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) will not be spared. All that’s possible is being done to unravel the scam,” Shankar said in reply to a question on Malhotra’s alleged links with politicians and bureaucrats.
Malhotra told the Zee News 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.
Malhotra, who has a fleet of swanky cars, 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 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.
“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.”
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.
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.