Delhi land sharks face CBI heat

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) tightened the noose around alleged land sharks who are accused in various land scams in the capital.

The agency carried out raids at 12 places in Delhi, including the office of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Friday.

According to senior CBI officials, apart from Ashok Malhotra’s residence, raids were carried out against six MCD officials and another businessman by the name of Ashok Jain.

The recent land scam came to light after CBI started investigations against Malhotra, who allegedly has a nexus with various Congress leaders in the capital. According to CBI officials, 7 kilograms of gold, Rs 17 lakh cash and documents related to 5,500 plots, were seized.   

Mainly offices and premises of MCD officials in Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Palwal were raided, sleuths said. The MCD officials, who have been named in the FIR, are Phillip Toppo, deputy director, NS Sidhu, director MCD, Nanak Chand Khandelwal, junior engineer, Atul Vashist, upper divisional clerk, Sher Singh, assistant engineer and Sumer Chand Garg.   

“We have arrested two officials of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for their involvement in forging government land documents and selling them to private builders,” said a CBI official.

He added that RS Sandhu, the canteen manager of Ashok Malhotra, was also arrested.

The recent raids were carried out after the CBI found out that Malhotra was involved in forging documents of another rehabilitation land in Molarband area in northwest Delhi.