Mayawati to refer Noida land scam to CBI

Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: The Mayawati Government on Monday decided to refer the Noida land scam case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

State Principal Secretary (Home) K. Chandramouli told newspersons that the decision was taken following complaints of irregularities in allotment of plots in Noida. He said the legal aspects of the case would be taken into consideration before sending the letter to the Central Government . The case is currently pending in the apex court.

These allotments were made in 2004-2005 when the Mulayam Singh Government was in power. Following complaints of out-of-turn and discretionary allotments to most favoured persons including Samajwadi Party functionaries, Ministers, MLAs, relatives of members of the judiciary, and bureaucrats, IPS officers and their relatives, a writ petition was filed in the Allahabad High Court.

Delivering its ruling on Civil Miscellaneous Writ Petition No. 48287 of 2005 and Civil Miscellaneous Writ Petition No. 50418 of 2005, the Allahabad High Court had quashed all such allotments as "arbitrary" and directed that an inquiry be conducted by the CBI. The UP Government filed an appeal in the Supreme Court (Civil Appeal No. 6794 - 6795 of 2005) against the High Court judgment.The Supreme Court admitted the appeal and stayed the investigation by the CBI ordered by the Allahabad High Court.

The Noida land scam pointed towards several alleged irregularities and some "benami" allotments in which the allottees seemed to have been handpicked by the Noida authorities. Some allotments were also allegedly made to persons close to Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh.

The alleged irregularities purportedly pertained to some allotments made to individuals with different application form numbers but with the same address and the payments made from the same account through the same bank. Six allotments were reportedly made to an industry whose owner is alleged to be closely associated with a SP functionary. Allotments were reportedly made to persons whose addresses were same and the payment was made through the same account number.