3 officials booked in Games graft case
Dec 18, 2011 - JEHANGIR ALI | Age Corespondent
| New Delhi
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Taking action in an alleged case of corruption in Commonwealth Games-related project, the crime branch of the Delhi police has booked three senior officials of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi Fire Services for fraudulently issuing clearance certificates for “monetary benefits” to Eros Group for its “non-existent” multi-facility complex in east Delhi.
Eros Group had acquired a plot of land in Mayur Vihar for augmenting tourist infrastructure in the city under the scheme offered by the DDA before the Games wherein 33 land sites were identified and auctioned to private builders for infrastructure development.
Investigations into the case revealed that not only was the said complex “non-existent” but the developer (Eros Group) indulged in massive irregularities amounting to several hundred crores by floating schemes offering shops and private facilities in a “non-existent” complex to raise capital, which was, as one official privy to investigations put it, offered as a bribe to the government officials to obtain clearances. Repeated attempts to contact Eros officials didn’t fructify.
Crime branch sources, however, disclosed that several top government officials may be involved in the fraud and investigations are underway to reveal their involvement.
“The Eros Group was able to get allotment of the Mayur Vihar plot at very cheap rate in connivance with DDA officials. The accused company was bound to develop the land prior to CWG 2010 but miserably failed to do so. In order to avail several government benefits, it showed its project Eros Boulevard to be ‘operational’ before the Games with several valid operational licenses obtained with active connivance of top officials in the MCD, DDA, Delhi Urban Arts Commission and Delhi Fire Services,” a source said
“Eros Group adopted a similar policy for their project in Sector 14, Dwarka. Everything was operational but only on papers to generate capital. The accused are big guns and used to threaten customers to desist from litigation by claiming to have a big legal network and relations with top government officials and judiciary. We have got several complaints which suggest that the scam runs into hundreds of crores,” the official said.
A case has been registered against a deputy director of DDA, health officer of MCD (south zone), a DFS official and the managing director and 12 other officials of Eros Group.