CBI gets Yadav Singh, looks at his properties, chain of investments

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The CBI prosecutor informed the court that during Yadav’s stint as chief engineer, agreement bonds for Rs 954.38 crore were allegedly executed in eight days. A project engineer had already been arrested in connection with the case and the agency needed Singh’s custody to unearth the scam, the prosecutor said.

The court sent Yadav to CBI custody until February 10.

Defence lawyer Amit Khemka said: “Yadav was already cooperating with investigators, what was the need to put him behind bars.”

Meanwhile, CBI sources said the agency had come across properties worth several hundred crores in the name of Singh and his family members.

The agency, which conducted 14 raids between August and October last year, found documents related to 39 properties in the name of Singh and his family members, sources said. These not only include residential premises but even agricultural land, companies and factories. It even found investments made by Singh’s family members in seven companies, sources said.

Singh was arrested Wednesday by the CBI after sustained questioning through the day. CBI said Singh was arrested for allegedly “abusing his official position in awarding contracts and causing wrongful loss to the government exchequer”.

According to CBI sources, investigations have revealed that Singh’s immovable properties which are in his name and those of his family members are spread across Noida, Agra, Jevar (in Greater Noida) and Aligarh.

“At present, we are in the process of getting valuation of six of these properties done by the Income Tax department. A report on four of these is likely to be received soon,” a CBI officer said. The agency has also found huge investments in various companies.

In August last year, the SP government in UP moved the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court’s decision to order a CBI probe into alleged irregularities by Singh. In September, an investigation by The Indian Express showed that the family of SP Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav, cousin of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, got a sweet deal from Yadav Singh via an aide.

According to the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Ram Gopal Yadav’s son Akshay Yadav — he was elected to Lok Sabha on a SP ticket from Firozabad in May 2014 — took over 9,995 shares of a Delhi-registered company from an associate of Yadav Singh and a former business partner of the latter’s wife on September 11, 2013 — months after the SP government reinstated Yadav Singh who had been suspended earlier.