DDA housing fraud: Shopping mall staffer held

The Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police arrested an employee of a shopping mall who allegedly provided money to retired DDA clerk ML Gautam for purchasing the application forms in the 2008 DDA housing scam.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police arrested an employee of a shopping mall who allegedly provided money to retired DDA clerk ML Gautam for purchasing the application forms in the 2008 DDA housing scam. Three other financiers are still on the run.

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The accused — identified as Jeet Ram (30), a Pitampura resident — had allegedly provided Rs 15 lakh to Gautam to purchase the application forms. The police said Ram met Gautam through a common friend whose role in the scam is also being probed.

Police said Gautam had also provided five postdated cheques to the accused as a surety in lieu of the money. Gautam had invested Rs 65 lakh after borrowing it from the financiers and filled 1,886 forms. In the process, he managed to corner 46 flats.

"We arrested the accused from the premises of the Mamram Majesty Mall on Monday evening. He was evading the police and was not cooperating in the investigations," Amulya Patnaik, joint commissioner of police (crime), said

Gautam had reportedly promised the financiers that he would sell the cornered flats at inflated rates and had even assured them that they would get a few flats in return for their money.

"There are others along with the accused who pumped in the money. Jeet Ram had arranged the money after selling a plot of land," the officer said.

Jeet Ram was working as cashier with a shopping mall. Ram was produced in a city court on Tuesday and he was sent to two days police custody.

"He is in our custody for two days and we would interrogate him to know the exact chain of events," said the officer.

So far, six persons have been arrested in the housing scam. Police said they are yet to receive information on the software used for the draw of lots from authorities in Hyderabad.