Former Delhi govt officials sentenced for ‘fraudulent’ allotment of 26 plots to slum dwellers, 17 years later

Three others, Surjeet Singh, Mohan Lal, and Vijay Kumar, were sentenced to two years imprisonment but were granted two months to file an appeal challenging their sentence.

Special Judge Gaurav Rao of Rouse Avenue Court, in the conviction order dated December 17, said: “How they cheated is by making fraudulent allotments based on forged and fabricated documents… Forged ration cards and Delhi Administration ID cards were prepared in the name of allottees… not entitled to or eligible for allotment. These allottees… had not applied for allotment.”

“… the ultimate aim was to sell these plots in the open market, thereby causing wrongful gain to themselves and wrongful loss to the department/Slum & JJ Department, MCD,” it noted.

All accused persons were convicted for the offences of criminal conspiracy and for offences committed under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act among others.

Here’s how the fraud was committed:

According to court documents, it all began when the Slum and JJ Department of the MCD decided to allot resettlement plots to erstwhile dwellers of JJ clusters of Yamuna Pushta in Savda-Ghevra village in Delhi.

– To be eligible, beneficiaries must fulfill two conditions: their names should be in the joint survey list of the JJ Clusters, and they should be a resident of Delhi as of January 31, 1990.

However, the court noted that none of the 26 dwellers could’ve been given the plots as 17 of them had already been allotted plots in previous years. Five of them, said the court, did not meet the eligibility criteria and four did not have the required documents.

– The next step is verification of documents such as ration cards, ID cards issued by the Delhi Administration, demolition slips and so on. Forged ration and ID cards were prepared and used in the name of “fictitious persons” for the allotment of the plots, the court observed.

– The step after this in the allotment process is a “draw” — either manual or computerised. The court noted that even this draw was conducted in a “fraudulent” manner. “… Permission to hold manual draw was sought to further the conspiracy, give effect to the conspiracy, and for the same reason, the quorum was reduced (to two members instead of five),” it said.

– After the manual draw, a draw list and challans were prepared in the name of allottees and Rs 7,000 each was also deposited in their names. However, the alleged allottees were not even aware the allotment was being made in their names. “… the allottees of the questioned plots were not aware of this entire exercise as everything was happening behind their back,” said the court.

– The final nail in the coffin was the recovery of all the documents from the homes of one Ashok Jain (now deceased) who was involved in the conspiracy with the five accused persons.

Before parting with the judgment, the Court also pulled up the CBI for the “shoddy” manner in which the investigating officers conducted themselves.

“I deem it fit that the copy of the present judgment be sent to the Director, CBI, who shall look into the observations made by this court as regards the manner in which investigation was carried out by the investigating officers and other officials who investigated the present matter. The lapses in the investigation, the sloppy/shoddy manner in which the IOs and other investigating officers conducted themselves is highly deplorable,” the Judge noted.

The agency had, over the years, examined 52 witnesses.