The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday arrested another accused in the ₹126 crore land scam at Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA).
The main accused, P.C. Gupta, who was the then CEO of YEIDA, was arrested in June 2018 after an FIR was filed by an inspector in the authority.
19 still at large
This is the second arrest in the case where the total number of the YEIDA has filed FIRs against 22 people. The remaining 19 people named in the FIRs are still reported absconding.
The police said that Ramesh Bansal, who hails from Noida Sector 44, was the director at one of the companies from which the YEIDA had acquired 57.15 hectares of land at an inflated price in Mathura that actually had no utility.
The recent arrest was made around 7.30 a.m. on Thursday morning, when the police raided the accused’s residence at Sector 44, “The accused was on the run since the time the scam was reported six months ago. We were tipped-off by an informer about his arrival at his residence, following which a team was sent for a raid. The team found him at his residence,” said Ramphal Singh, Station House Officer at Kasna.
Nishank Sharma, Circle Officer 1 in Greater Noida, said that Ramesh was the director of a company named Data Infrastructure Private Limited, which was one of the seven companies that were named for the alleged fraud with the help of senior officers at the YEIDA.
“The companies were allegedly owned by the relatives and friends of the then CEO who allegedly had asked them to buy the useless 57.15 hectare of land. The land was later acquired by the authority at an inflated price,” said Mr. Sharma.
All the accused in this case are booked under IPC Section 420 (cheating) and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
YEIDA CEO Arun Veer Singh said there were 22 offenders against whom FIR was lodged in the case.
“We will be issuing recovery notices to all arrested. However, since most of them are absconding, we are unable to do that. We are waiting for the police to trace the offenders,” he said.