Lokayukta recommends inquiry against another Maya minister

In a report sent to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav,Mehrotra recommended a criminal probe against Pal by any of the four investigation agencies — namely the CBI,Enforcement Directorate,UP Vigilance Establishment or the Anti-Corruption Organisation.

Mehrotra said Pal,his wife Shivkali,his sons Omdutt,Ajay and Vijay,his brother Rajkumar,mother Chhedi Devi,cousin Santosh Kumar,friends Ziya-ul-Hasan and Ram Karan had immovable property worth Rs 23.93 crore. Many of these properties were bought benami after Pal became minister and actually belonged to Pal,he added.

The report said while Pal had shown immovable property of only Rs 13 lakh in the name of his wife,six sons and himself in 2007 when he filed the nomination papers for the Assembly election,now Pal,his wife and four sons possessed immovable property worth Rs 17.09 crore. Interestingly,the family members of Pal is learnt to have received many of these properties as donations.

Lokayukta said Pal’s brother Rajkumar received prime land in Fatehpur,worth Rs 1.87 crore,as donation. These transactions of donations required a criminal probe,Mehrotra recommended.

The Lokayukta also indicted Pal for using his influence as minister to grab the land of gram sabha and forest department and assimilate it into a farmhouse owned by his brother Rajkumar and two sons Omdutt and Ajay. The current value of the farmhouse was estimated to be over Rs 10 crore.

Spread over more than eight hectares,the farmhouse included 1.328 hectares of forest department land and 0.063 hectare land of Hulaskheda village in Mohanlalganj area of Lucknow,the Lokayukta said. He has asked the government to take back the land belonging to gram sabha and forest and prosecute the offenders under the UP Zamindari Abolition and the Land Reforms Act.

During investigation,the Lokayukta’s found that Omdutt,Ajay and Rajkumar had given LDA Colony,Kanpur Road,Lucknow,as their address to the Registrar of Chits,Firms and Societies in the partnership deed of the farmhouse but the address was found to be fake as none of the three partners lived there over the past six years.

The Lokayukta also indicted Pal of committing financial anomalies in the sports department. Pal sanctioned more than 45 construction projects of Rs 169.38 crore by revising estimates during his five-year tenure as sports minister.

Most of these projects were awarded to the construction agencies like Rajkiya Nirman Nigam,UP Processing and Construction Cooperative Federation Ltd,UP Project Corporation Ltd,and UP Jal Nigam’s Construction and Design Services(C&DS) without inviting tenders.

Mehrotra said he had received audit reports of the Accountant General from sports department on the construction of sports complexes,hostels and a large number of swimming pools. The AG raised several objections on the financial handling of these projects. Payments for several projects were made before completion,money was released without the availability of land for construction,and estimates of projects revised without any basis.

The complaint against Pal for owning wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income was filed by Dhirendra Pratap Singh,an SP worker from Fatehpur,in November last year. At present,Pal represents the Ayah Shah constituency of Fatehpur in the Assembly.