Noida land scam: 66% of plot winners sent forms after ‘original’ closing

After investigating the case for nearly two years, the CBI has decided to close the files of the 2005 Noida land scam, in which top politicians, bureaucrats and their relatives were allotted residential plots after a ‘computerised’ draw of lots. The agency has concluded that there is a lack of ‘concrete evidence’ in the case.

DNA’s finds that the draw seems to have been rigged, and evidence of wrongdoing is too strong to ignore. In the second installment of a three-part series, he lays down the facts.

Right from the beginning, there were only half-hearted attempts to find the truth. The CBI had taken over the investigation in November 2007. The agency took its first visible action in January 2008, when it raided 20 places in Lucknow, Noida, Ghaziabad and Meerut. These searches were conducted at the residences and offices of employees of the Noida authority, the Uttar Pradesh Development System Corporation (UPDESCO) and the state government.

The UPDESCO had organised the all-important computerised draw of lots. The CBI had also raided a private firm in Lucknow, which was unofficially given the responsibility of conducting the draw by the UPDESCO.

When sleuths were going through a video recording of the computerised draw held on July 2, 2005, they saw a person sitting at the table where the draw was taking place. This person was not an UPDESCO employee, he belonged to the private firm. When the CBI sleuths asked UPDESCO about this person, they said he had been hired to conduct the draw but could not produce any contract authorising this person to do the job.

The CBI got even more suspicious about the ‘outsourcing’ when they found that a relative of the director of the private firm, where this person was working, had been allotted a plot. The CBI also started collecting the original applications of all 625 successful applicants from the general category. It appeared there was a clear conspiracy to rig the draw.

In fact, its puzzling how the UPDESCO managed to get the contract for the draw. Initially, the Noida authority decided to hire Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which had done the same job for them on four previous occasions. Accordingly, the Noida authority began talks with TCS.

In March 2005, the Noida officials received a letter from a nondescript UP government agency, the UPDESCO, saying it was ready to conduct the draw. Ultimately, UPDESCO was awarded the contract and TCS was nudged out of the reckoning. The reason given was that TCS had not given any undertaking that those of its employees who had applied for plots would not be involved in the draw of lots. However, no such undertaking was received from the UPDESCO. And it was UPDESCO which ‘outsourced’ the draw to private firm.

There was another ‘coincidence’ . Originally, the scheme was due to close on December 7, 2004. However, the authorities gave it two extensions and eventually closed it on December 31, 2004. In fact, the Allahabad high court had done a very interesting calculation while ordering a CBI inquiry into the case.

According the court, “412 successful applicants out of the possible 625 had given applications after December 7, 2004, the original closing date.” That comes to around 66% of the successful applicants. Despite all these facts, the CBI is now about to say that there is lack of concrete evidence in the matter.