Fresh case against Chholegate kingpin Ashok Malhotra

Vishwa Mohan & Pradeep Thakur / TNN / Dec 4, 2007, 00:00 IST

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The extent of the land scam involving Ashok Malhotra is getting wider with CBI unearthing irregularities in the allotment of hundreds of plots in yet another colony.

<arttitle>Fresh case against <i>Chholegate</i> kingpin Ashok Malhotra</arttitle>

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Chhole vendor-turned-millionaire Ashok Malhotra has been involved in another scam (TOI Photo)NEW DELHI: The extent of the land scam involving chhole vendor-turned-millionaire Ashok Malhotra and MCD officials is getting wider with CBI unearthing irregularities in the allotment of hundreds of plots in yet another resettlement colony - Savda Ghevra in west Delhi - and booking six persons, including the kingpin, in a fresh case.
This is the third case against Malhotra and his friends in the civic body who have already been chargesheeted by the investigating agency in connection with their shady deals in Dheerpur Phase-I and Molarband Phase-II in north Delhi comprising over 1,000 plots.
Besides Malhotra and his associate Ashok Jain, the four others who are the accused in the case are: S N S Sidhu, director, Slum Upgradation and Rehabilitation (SUR) directorate of MCD; Phillip Toppo, deputy director (SUR); Sumer Chand Garg, assistant director (SUR); and Atul Vashishtha, upper division clerk.
CBI in its FIR, registered on November 29, has alleged that the accused had grabbed "a large number of plots" in Savda Ghevra village (having 255 acres of land) which were meant for resettling slum dwellers of Yamuna Pushta. Incidentally, the accused had adopted a similar modus operandi for grabbing plots in Dheerpur (Phase-I) and Molarband (Phase-II).

Malhotra and his associates had got the plots (measuring 20.9 sq metres each) allotted in the name of non-existent applicants by submitting fake ration and identity cards, survey register, photographs and bank challans.
Subsequently, they sold these plots on the basis of forged general powers of attorney and cash receipts, making crores of rupees in the deal. The accused MCD officials are suspected to have helped the scamster in providing all the documents required for grabbing those plots in return for hefty bribes.

Meanwhile, in a related development which may uncover irregularities in land allotments in other parts of the Capital, CBI on Saturday conducted raids against a junior engineer of MCD at Sector-16, Rohini, and claimed that it had recovered a number of documents from his office and residence.
Though the agency is yet to find out the involvement of Malhotra and his gang in allotment of plots in Rohini, it suspects that the land deal there might have been a part of the same nexus. Nearly 50 plots were allotted there to some unidentified persons who had used fictitious names to grab them during February-March, 2006.
The entire land scam had surfaced in July-August when CBI conducted a series of raids against Malhotra and a number of MCD and DDA officials. In the raid at Malhotra's Mukherjee Nagar residence, the sleuths had found that he possessed 17 luxury cars having VIP registration number plates, Rs 17 lakh in cash, about seven kg of gold and over 100 bank accounts having a balance of Rs 2 crore.
vishwa.mohan@timesgroup.com
pradeep.thakur@timesgroup.com

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