E-Paper
Jankipuram scam: CBI registers case
FOR THE LDA officials, the suspense over the much-awaited (or should we say much-dreaded) call from the country?s premiere investigating agency came on Tuesday when a senior CBI officer called up the LDA Vice Chairman to inform him that the agency had registered a case in the Jankipuram land scam. On January 21, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court headed by Justice VM Sahai and Justice Barkat Ali Zaidi had directed the CBI to investigate the Jankipuram land scam and submit a report to it within three months.
FOR THE LDA officials, the suspense over the much-awaited (or should we say much-dreaded) call from the country’s premiere investigating agency came on Tuesday when a senior CBI officer called up the LDA Vice Chairman to inform him that the agency had registered a case in the Jankipuram land scam.
On January 21, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court headed by Justice VM Sahai and Justice Barkat Ali Zaidi had directed the CBI to investigate the Jankipuram land scam and submit a report to it within three months. “We have registered a case under various sections of the Anti-Corruption Act including forgery and would submit a report by May 25 as directed by the court,” confirmed a senior CBI officer when contacted by HT Lucknow Live. He said LDA officers were intimated about the move and they have been asked to send all the necessary documents and property records related to the 123 plots of Jankipuram Housing Scheme that are presently the subject matter of investigation.
Though, the LDA VC BB Singh was not available for comments, sources in the development agency revealed that he had already instructed three LDA officials to coordinate with the investigating agency on the issue. “Two property officers NN Singh and KK Singh have been assigned the task of providing all necessary papers/record to the CBI under the supervision of deputy secretary DS Rathore, who has been made a nodal officer in the case,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
Rathore is the same officer, who conducted the preliminary inquiry into the scam and submitted a report to the State Government on the basis of which 12 LDA officials including four joint secretaries (two of them senior PCS officers) were subsequently suspended. Of the 123 plots, the development agency presently has property records of only 95. Again, only four of these files contain hand-written notes of LDA officials while the sheets containing these noting are missing from the rest of them. LDA officials would hand over these files to the CBI on Wednesday.
LDA’s immediate concern is to ensure that the probe is focussed around the 123 plots in Jankipuram referred to by the HC only lest any deviation by the investigating agency may inadvertently end up opening up a virtual Pandora’s box. In fact, if sources are to be believed, some ‘burra sahibs’ are already squirming in their coveted chairs over High Court’s observation that “the CBI will be free to question the vice chairmen and secretaries and other officers posted in the LDA during the period of scam”.
