Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 8 (IANS) The Economics Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police Wednesday named five accused in the first chargesheet filed in a city court in the multi-million rupee Delhi Development Authority (DDA) housing scam.
Filing the chargesheet in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Bansal, the EOW slapped several charges against the accused including Sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.

Those named in the chargesheet are property dealers Laxmi Narayan Meena, a resident of Rajasthan’s Jhunjunu, Deepak Kumar, Raju Ram and Vijay Pal, and M.L. Gautam, a retired DDA employee.

The court, meanwhile, extended the judicial custody of all the accused.

Over 500,000 people applied for 5,238 flats under the DDA housing scheme 2008 and the draw of lots was held Dec 16, but soon there were allegations that it was rigged.

The EOW started investigations after a man who was allotted a flat in the draw of lots told the police that he had not even applied for a flat.

Investigations have revealed that a group of people conspired to buy several flats in the names of those from reserved categories like the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes who were eligible for the flats but could not afford them. The conspirators meant to sell off these flats later for huge profits.

The DDA allotted over 5,000 flats through a draw of lots in which 567,000 applications were considered. The flats cost between Rs.700,000 to Rs.7.7 million each and are located in areas like Dwarka, Rohini and Vasant Kunj.