New Delhi, Jan 22: A property dealer, accused of cheating and forgery in the DDA flat allotment scam, was Thursday denied bail by a Delhi court which said the probe in the
matter was still at an initial stage.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Digvinay Singh refused to grant relief to accused Deepak Kumar, who claimed to have blown the lid off the scam.
Kumar, arrested on January 11, was accused by the Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police to have obtained two PAN cards giving different names and addresses, besides having helped co-accused to open a bank account with forged papers.
In his bail plea, his counsel submitted that the accused had never used the said PAN card and was ready to cooperate with the investigating agency.
Regarding the other case, Kumar`s counsel contended that no recovery was effected from him while the entire allegations were merely based on the disclosure statements of other
accused.
Opposing his contention, the prosecution submitted that the investigation in the matter was at the primary stage and there was a possibility of the accused influencing witnesses
in the case.
After hearing contentions of both the parties, the court said since the matter was still at an initial stage the plea of accused deserved to be rejected.
A total of five persons, including a former DDA employee M L Gautam, have been arrested in the scam for alleged offences of cheating, forgery, using forged documents as
genuine and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code.
The DDA had, on December 6, conducted a draw of lots for over 5,000 flats in which 5.67 lakh applications were considered.
Anomalies in DDA flat applications
Delhi Police has found anomalies in the documents furnished by the successful applicants in DDA housing scheme from Bulandshar, Khurja and Aligarh.
The police had sent a team to these places after it came to light that retired DDA employee M L Gautam, who has been arrested in the case, had helped people from his village in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh to apply for flats.
Anomalies have been found in the bank loan application forms and the PAN cards furnished by the applicants, S B K Singh, Additional Commissioner (EOW), told reporters today.
There are about 10 successful candidates from Bulandshahr and Khurja.
"Police are further looking into whether they had applied for bank loans and whether the documents were genuine," he said.
The EOW is also probing the financiers of Gautam. The retired DDA employee has also provided names of about 17 to 18 persons who were involved in the scam.
"We do not want to reveal their names. We are investigating. The persons, he has named, are all types of people like financiers, property dealers," Singh said.
As Gautam`s police custody ends tomorrow, the EOW may ask for further extension of his custody.
"We need to do some more questioning," he said.
Bureau Report
