A clerk, posted with the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA), has been booked by the city police for forging documents to sell a pre-allotted plot of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat. The land in question is situated in Indirapuram locality of Ghaziabad. The fraud was unearthed when the victim lodged a complaint with the police as he was duped by the clerk who had the audacity to forge the documents of the plot allotted in the name of the Uttarakhand CM.
According to police, one Gulab Yadav lodged a complaint with Sihani Gate police station alleging that he was cheated by Vinay Kumar, a clerk of the GDA. The clerk had lured him to buy two plots on April 2, 2010 and arranged a meeting with supervisor Chandra Pal and Virpal Raghav, who called three clerks Prashant Kumar, Rajendra and Mewa lal. They all assured Yadav to provide the plots as decided. As negotiations went on over a month, the clerk and other partners in the crime demanded Rs25 lakh as the initial amount for the plots. Yadav paid the amount to Mewa lal on April 16, believing them to be the employees of GDA, and from there his troubles started. The clerk and other employees kept on dishing out one excuse after another. They neither provided the promised plots to the complainant nor returned the money.
On his persistence, they gave an allotment letter pertaining to the plot situated in Gyan Khand I Indirapuram (No-GK 1/165) signed by the then GDA joint secretary, Shambhu Nath. The allotment letter was in the name of Vimal Chand Mitra, a resident of IIIrd l/31 Nehru Nagar in Ghaziabad. They demanded Rs1.20 crore for this plot. They provided another allotment letter pertaining to plot No: HIG 591, Govindpuram. For this 350 square metre plot, they demanded Rs80 lakh. The victim was asked to choose between these two plots, against the initial amount of Rs25 lakh paid to Mewa lal.
For the last four years, he had been complaining to the GDA officials but no action was initiated by them. He then approached registered a complaint against the erring GDA employees. GDA Officer on Special Duty (OSD) RP Pandey said he received the complaint on October 26, 2013 and during investigation he found that the allotment pertaining to GK I/165 Indirapuram was in the name of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat. No tampered document was available on record. The plot still exists in the name of Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat. The forged allotment letter in the name of Vimal Chand Mitra enclosed with his complaint was non-existent in GDA records. The Uttarakhand CM, however, said it was duty of the State police to probe into such matters. “If any fraud has been committed, it is the duty of the State police to probe into the matter and take suitable action against those accused,” CM Rawat told The Pioneer.
The other plot HIG 591 Govindpuram was, earlier, allotted to one Shiela Devi but her allotment was cancelled in 1996 for failing to make the timely payment. This plot, as on GDA record stands vacant. “The file pertaining to plot of Uttarakhand CM is in order. No tampered document is available on record and construction work on the plot is going on as per map approved by the GDA. The file pertaining to Govindpuram plot also is in order. An inquiry is being conducted in the matter,” Pandey said. “On the basis of evidence provided on record a criminal case under section 420, 467 and 468 of IPC has been registered against the erring clerk. No arrest has been made so far,” said Circle Officer II Ran Vijay Singh.