CBI registers two corruption cases against Yadav Singh

 CBI has registered two separate cases against the then Chief Engineer NOIDA, Greater NOIDA and Yamuna Expressway, Yadav Singh and his family members for alleged corruption and amassing assets disproportionate to the known sources of income.

The agency today carried out searches at 14 locations including at his residence and offices of Noida.

CBI sources said the first case has been registered under criminal conspiracy and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act against Singh, his wife Kusum Lata, daughter Garima Bhushan and son Sunny Yadav besides one more person Rajender Minocha for amassing disproportionate assets.

CBI sources said it is alleged that during searches by Income Tax department in November, 2014, several incriminating documents and the Income Tax Returns were allegedly recovered from several premises of Singh.

"The scrutiny of ITRs and other connecting records have allegedly revealed that during the period 2009-2014, the total likely savings of the family of then Chief Engineer was Rs.1.70 crore(approx) whereas they were in possession of immovable property worth Rs.3.60 crore(approx).

"Besides, an amount of Rs 10 crores(approx) was allegedly recovered from one of his associates, which also reportedly belonged to then Chief Engineer," CBI spokesperson said here today.

The official said cases have been registered on the direction of Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court which directed it to conduct an investigation into allegations of corruption and amassing of unaccounted money by the accused in regard to all transactions, persons and entities connected thereto.

The official said the second case relates to allegations of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act against Singh.

The accused allegedly entered into criminal conspiracy with unknown private persons firms and awarded various contracts without following the laid down procedures and thereby caused undue pecuniary gain to the tune of crores of rupees to private firms and to himself, the official said.

"The local police had also registered a FIR No 371 at Police Station Sector 39, Noida (Uttar Pradesh) on June 13, 2012. The FIR ended in closure and a Final report was filed in the trial court by the local police on January 30, 2014 which was accepted by the court on November 27, 2014," the official said.

The High Court had ordered a CBI probe on the petition of activist Nutan Thakur, wife of suspended UP Police IG Amitabh Thakur, alleging Singh had enjoyed plum postings under the regimes of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and incumbent Akhilesh Yadav, and the state government was not acting against him.

He had executed projects worth around Rs 8,000 crore in Noida in the last 12 years, the Noida authority has said in a report, the PIL alleged.

The figure excludes Singh's involvement in the authority's land allotment process for commercial, industrial and residential projects, it said.

Singh was involved in infrastructure projects such as Ganga water supply, sewage pipelines, drainage, hospitals, parks and the metro.

In the electrical department, Singh had signed bonds of more than Rs 500 crore in last nine years. Signing a bond means releasing funds to firms after work is executed.

After the tax raids on Singh and companies related to his wife Kusumlata, the authority cancelled several projects.

Singh was Engineer-in-Chief of the Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway Authorities for 17 days, where he gave the go-ahead for 15 public projects —- all cancelled after the raids.

Singh has since been removed from his post and attached to the CEO office. But he has remained absent without applying for leave, prompting the authority to issue him a show-cause notice.

The Mayawati government -— when BSP formed a coalition in Uttar Pradesh with BJP support— had first appointed him as engineer-in-chief of the authority in 2002.
After the Samajwadi Party (SP) ousted BSP in 2003, it transferred Singh and his associates.
BSP and SP have denied links with Singh.