Trader held for Rs 126 crore land scam, 2nd arrest after PC Gupta’s

Greater Noida: A businessman was arrested from his Sector 44 home on Thursday morning in connection with the Rs 126-crore YEIDA land scam, the second arrest since that of the development agency’s former CEO, PC Gupta, in June this year.
Police said Ramesh Bansal, who was picked up from his home during a morning raid, was the director of one of the companies from which 57 hectares had been brought in Mathura at an inflated price though the land had no utility. Gupta allegedly informed his relatives and acquaintances about the development work in advance, and they bought the land from farmers. The FIR in the land scam mentions 22 people in total. The remaining 20 are untraceable.

Bansal was arrested around 7.30am when police raided his house. “He was on the run ever since the scam was reported six months ago. We were tipped off by an informer that he had come home. A team raided his house and arrested him from there,” said Ramphal Singh, the station house officer of Kasna police station.

Circle officer Nishank Sharma said Ramesh was the director of a company called Data Infrastructure Pvt limited. It is one of the seven companies named in the FIR in connection with the fraud.

“The companies were allegedly owned by relatives and friends of the then YEIDA CEO (PC Gupta). He allegedly asked them to buy 57 hectares from farmers and other villagers and sell it to the agency at an inflated price,” Sharma said.

Gupta and the other accused have been charged under Section 420 of the IPC (cheating) and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

YEIDA CEO Arun Veer Singh said an FIR had been registered against 22 people in total. “We will issue recovery notices to all arrested. Since most of them are absconding, we are unable to do that at this moment. So, we are waiting for the police to do their job and trace the offenders,” said Singh.