SC appointed SIT visits Noida authority office to probe land compensation scam

The Supreme Court on October 5, 2023, while hearing a case in which a former legal officer of Noida authority was accused of wrongfully sanctioning a compensation of ₹7.28 crore in a land acquisition case, 22 years after it stood paid, was told that there were 11 other such instances as well

The special investigation team (SIT, appointed by the Supreme Court, on Monday visited the Noida authority’s main administrative building in Sector 6 to collect facts with regards to irregularities in the distribution of land compensation, which allegedly took place in Noida over the past 15 years.

During the hearing, the apex court said it was dissatisfied with the probe and directed an SIT to probe all cases related to the distribution of the land compensation in the past 15 years in Noida. (ANI)

The matter pertains to wrongful claims for compensation, to the tune of ₹91.81 crore, from village Gejha Tilaptabad located along Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.

The Supreme Court on October 5, 2023, while hearing a case in which a former legal officer of Noida authority was accused of wrongfully sanctioning a compensation of ₹7.28 crore in a land acquisition case, 22 years after it stood paid, was told that there were 11 other such instances as well.

On this, the bench of justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta directed the Uttar Pradesh government to form a SIT to probe all 12 cases.

The bench had said, “Who has tied your hands? Where is your accountability? It is not a question of one case alone. We find the state is doing nothing despite Noida authority claiming that money to the tune of ₹100 crore has been siphoned off. After all, this is public money. It is your duty to find out if there are other cases.”

Subsequently, the state government formed a committee headed by chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Board of Revenue Hemant Rao and consisting of Meerut division commissioner Selva Kumari, and additional director general of police ( Meerut Zone) Rajeev Sabharwal, which submitted its report to the top court during a hearing on November 24.

During the hearing, the apex court said it was dissatisfied with the probe and directed an SIT to probe all cases related to the distribution of the land compensation in the past 15 years in Noida.

As per the SC directive, the SIT has started its probe. In their earlier instance, their probe was confined only to 12 cases of land compensation distributed to non-existent farmers, said officials.

Now the SIT is looking into all cases in which land compensation was awarded to farmers of 82 villages for acquiring land to build the city of Noida. The SIT team spent around 3 hours time at the authority’s Sector 6 office on Monday and sources said they will again visit on Tuesday.

“We provided them all the files and data for the probe and we will continue to do so until the probe work is completed,” said Lokesh M, chief executive officer, Noida authority.

The Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate Maneesh Kumar Verma was also present at the Sector 6 office in connection with the probe.