Delhi starts reclaiming illegally sold Asola land

In November last year, HT had reported how officials allegedly fudged land records using fake court orders to transfer at least 30 acres of prime property, worth over ₹600 crore, to private individuals. The scam had prompted the L-G to ask the CBI to take up the case.

been identified. Thehe whole of December, we prepared maps for each of these plots and now the process is complete,” said Amjad Tak, district magistrate (south).

While doing this, the district administration discovered that another 28 bighas had been encroached upon by the followers of a spiritual group. This plot has now been reclaimed by the Delhi government and has been allotted to the education department to build a school, according to a report filed by the south district administration to Lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal and revenue minister Kailash Gahlot.

“The work of rectifying the canvass map (Sizra) is almost finalised. After completing this work, it would be of great help in getting a clear picture on encroachment in Asola village,” the report says.

Tak said that the process of taking possession of the rest of the land, including the plots that HT had written about, would begin after Republic Day.

“There are only those 13 cases where land was transferred by fudging government records. All other cases are primarily that of encroachment,” he said.

The scam was discovered when the government’s annual survey of property in 2016 revealed that plot (Khasra) number 1354 — a 2-acre land in Asola worth over ₹40 crore — was transferred and sold for just₹2 crore the previous year.