I-T raids irrigation engineer’s premises in Noida, other cities

NOIDA: The income tax department on Thursday conducted simultaneous searches on 22 premises owned or related to Rajeshwar Singh Yadav, a superintending engineer of Uttar Pradesh irrigation department, in seven cities including Noida and Ghaziabad, for amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of income. Yadav is currently posted with Head Works Division, Agra Canal in Okhla. He stays in Sector 44, Noida.

According to I-T officials, their teams seized several documents, jewellery and other valuables from his Noida house. The teams arrived in the morning and scanned the premises till afternoon. The I-T officials also quizzed Yadav and recorded his statement on the valuables found from his house. They also found some bank accounts which were used for transactions over a period of time.

They also conducted similar searches in Etah, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Delhi and in a few other cities.

Initial findings revealed that Yadav owns a private school in Sector 51, a flat in Sector 44 and has stakes in a private company in Greater Noida. I-T officials believe that he owns properties at some other places too. Yadav's strong political connections helped in the exponential growth of his wealth over a period of time, they said.

The searches were conducted under the supervision of I-T department investigation wing principal director Amrendra Kumar, joint director M K Jain and deputy director Suneel Kumar. However, the I-T officials refused to give details saying the matter is under investigation.