M A I N   N E W S

CBI books Haryana Home Secy, 2 top officials for Unitech graft
Chitleen K Sethi
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 5
The CBI has booked Haryana Home Secretary Krishan Mohan, Haryana Civil Services officer Vivek Atray and former adviser to the Chandigarh Administrator Lalit Sharma in a corruption case relating to the period while they were posted in Chandigarh.

They have been booked for having favoured Unitech Limited in the allotment of over 73 acres of land for the setting up of a theme-cum-amusement park in Chandigarh. Unitech MD Ajay Chandra has also been booked in the case.

The four have been booked under Sections 120B, 201 and 420 of the IPC besides Section 13(1)D of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The case was registered yesterday.

Krishan Mohan is a 1977-batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre and was on deputation to Chandigarh as the UT Home Secretary from 2005 to 2008. Vivek Atray was posted as the Director Tourism during that period. He is now on leave from the Haryana Government and working with a private company. Lalit Sharma, retired from Chandigarh as the adviser to the UT Administrator in November, 2007.

Unitech Limited was allotted 73.65 acres of land at Sarangpur village for setting a theme-cum-amusement park in 2006. The cost of the land, it is alleged, was grossly undervalued and the land was given away at throwaway prices. The requisite approvals for the public-private partnership were also not taken.

The CBI is looking into the allegations of irregularities in the awarding of three mega projects in the city to private companies. These include the theme-cum-amusement park, the multimedia-cum-film city and the IT Park.

Confirming that a case has been registered against the three bureaucrats, CBI, Chandigarh, chief Mahesh Aggarwal said the inquiry into the allotment of land for the setting up of the theme-cum-amusement park was now complete. However, inquiries into the other two projects were still on, he added.

Last year, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had, following its own probe, recommended investigation by the CBI into the allegations surrounding these projects. The CBI’s anti-corruption branch initiated a preliminary inquiry in January this year. The CBI had questioned Krishan Mohan, Vivek Atray and Lalit Sharma during the past few months.

The theme-cum-amusement park and the multimedia-cum-film city projects were launched during the tenure of former UT Administrator General SF Rodrigues (retd), while the IT Park project was launched earlier.

The allotment of land for mega projects came under the scanner following a rift between Rodrigues and UT adviser Pradeep Mehra. Rodrigues retired as the UT Administrator early this year after completing his five-year term.