Delhi Police makes first arrest in DDA scam

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police registered a case on Friday in connection with the irregularities committed in the reserved category of the DDA housing scheme 2008, reports Vijaita Singh.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police registered a case on Friday in connection with the irregularities committed in the reserved category of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) housing scheme 2008.

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An EOW team camping in Rajasthan has also arrested a “key man” who had asked villagers in Jhunjhunu to fill the application forms for the housing scheme.

The accused, Laxmi Narayan Meena (52), allegedly sold the information about the villagers to two agents from Delhi in return of a huge amount of money, police said.

Hindustan Times was the first to report about Meena’s involvement on January 8.

“We registered a case of impersonation, cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy and have arrested one person,” said SBK Singh, additional commissioner of police (EOW).

Police said the arrest was made after a “successful allottee” ––Raghubir Singh –– from Jhunjhunu complained to the police that he was forced to fill the application form by the accused.

Meena, a resident of Jhunjhunu had been expelled from Kendriya Sehkari Bank in 2007 on charges of corruption and fraud, police said.

Meena who is in police custody said that he provided personal details of 156 villagers from Jhunjhunu to two agents from Delhi, identified as Deepak and Dinesh.

“He (Meena) has also given us the names of builders based in Dwarka and Shalimar Bagh. He told us he was given money to provide information,” said a police officer. “He would be brought to Delhi and produced in a city court on Saturday.”

Police said they are also looking at the involvement of certain DDA officials.

Udit Raj, president of Indian Justice Party, had given a complaint to the DDA officials in October last year and had alerted them about the alleged fraud in the application of forms in the SC/ST category. “The scam was unearthed after an agent working with a builder provided the information about the fraud to us,” said Raj.