CBI arrests its own officer and UP Revenue officer in Yamuna Authority fraud case

The CBI arrested on Sunday one of its officer and a revenue official in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district in connection with the Rs 126 crore Yamuna Expressway land scam, officials said.

The agency had on Saturday booked V S Rathore, an inspector in the anti-corruption branch in Ghaziabad; Sunil Dutt, the ASI of CBI Academy Ghaziabad; and tehsildar Ranveer Singh over the scam, they said.

“Inspector Rathore and tehsildar Ranveer Singh have been arrested in connection with the case,” the CBI official said.

It has also booked some “unknown officials of the UP Police” and “some other unidentified persons” in the case, the official said.

They are accused of a “criminal conspiracy for obtaining an undue advantage by the public servants for the dishonest performance of duty, undue advantage to influence public servant by corrupt or illegal means and bribing of public servants”.

They have been charged under the Indian Penal Code section 120B (party to a criminal conspiracy), and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Meanwhile, Circle Officer of Greater Noida 1st Nishank Sharma, who was probing the case, was summoned by the CBI in New Delhi for questioning.

“In the wake of the CBI questioning, Sharma, a deputy superintendent of police, has been removed as CO Greater Noida and attached in the Gautam Buddh Nagar headquarters,” on official order said Sunday.

According to the police, some YEIDA officials, including its former CEO P C Gupta, in tie-up with some private firms had purchased around 57 hectare “useless” land in 2014 from seven villages of Mathura in lieu of compensation to their owners by the Authority.

But the compensation amount was much higher than what was defined by the Authority for such purchases.

Also in doing so, the accused not only caused loss to the YEIDA but also made personal gains fraudulently, according to the police.

So far, at least six people have been arrested in the five-year-old case in which 21 people, including a former IAS officer, who also served as the YEIDA chairman, the police said.