CBI takes over probe in `126 cr YEIDA land scam
NEW DELHI: The CBI has formally taken over the investigation into an alleged scam of Rs 126 crore in the Yamuna Expressway Project, following the UP government’s sanction allowing the central agency to probe the case in the state. The Yamuna Expressway was former BSP CM Mayawati’s brainchild and was inaugurated by SP’S Akhilesh Yadav in 2012 during his time as CM.
Yogi Adityanath’s government in the state had ordered an enquiry into the matter, following which the case was referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The CBI has just re-registered the case, naming former CEO of Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), PC Gupta as an accused along with 20 other people.
The case was first registered by UP Police in June 2018 based on the complaint of a police official. According to the complaint, part of the land for the project was purchased from seven Mathura villages, from separate landowners. But the CBI has alleged that Gupta got into a criminal conspiracy with other officials of YEIDA and the other accused persons to first buy the pieces of land from the villagers and then sell it off to YEIDA at exorbitant rates, allegedly causing a loss of Rs 126 crore to the Authority.
According to the complaint, Gupta allegedly conspired with the other accused to purchase 57.15 hectares of the land from the seven villages in Mathura for around Rs 85.49 crore and then sold it back to YEIDA
a few months later at almost double the price, causing major
losses to the Authority. The complaint alleges almost 41 hectares of the entire
land acquired for the project was bought from just 19 entities, allegedly known to have close relations to Gupta. The FIR also alleges that a lot of these entities were set up by a few people in a conspiracy to show legitimate business activities but were in fact “sham companies”. One accused Swadesh Gupta, from whom YEIDA had purchased part of the land, is PC Gupta’s nephew, the complaint copy said.
Detailing the alleged irregularities in the purchase of the land, the FIR also said that appropriate tender procedures were contravened in purchasing the land and that the advertisements for the land purchase were only given to local newspapers of one village, which have “no circulation”. The UP Police had last year arrested PC Gupta and one Noida businessman Ramesh Bansal in connection with the case.