Why accused in land scam not named in challan, court asks CBI
Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 13
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Court, Haryana, has questioned the CBI over leaving out the name of Amit Katiyal, Director of M/s Krrish Builtech Pvt Ltd, from the array of accused in the challan in a Gurugram land release case.
The CBI had filed the challan in the case before the CBI Special Court, located in Panchkula, on January 4.
CBI Special Judge Jagdeep Singh observed, “It came to the notice of the court that in the challan/chargesheet filed by the CBI, there is specific mention to the effect that ‘In furtherance of criminal conspiracy entered with Amit Katiyal, Director of M/s Krrish Builtech Pvt Ltd, despite having major discrepancies, accused JS Redhu (former Chief Town Planner of Town and Country Planning Department) dishonestly and fraudulently, proposed to seek approval of the government to grant licence to the accused company, by releasing notified land of 130 acres from acquisition proceedings, thereby causing cheating to the related land owners/HUDA/state of Haryana’, but in the array of the accused, the said person, namely, Amit Katiyal has not been arrayed an accused.”
He added, “On a pointed query, learned PP (Public Prosecutor of the CBI) could not clarify the position.”
The CBI court ordered, “IO/Dy SP Kailash Sahu is directed to file an affidavit specifically mentioning as to how and why and under what circumstances the name of the aforesaid person has not been included in the array of the accused, even though there is categoric mention in the challan about his role in the alleged criminal conspiracy and offences.”
Besides Redhu, former Assistant Town Planner Satish Kumar Arora and former Deputy Superintendent Rajbir Singh, both from Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department, are named as accused in the challan along with the firm for cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to the CBI FIR, which also mentioned the names of former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and ACS TC Gupta, many pockets sandwiched between land on which licences were applied, falling under revenue ‘rasta’, ‘nullah’ were proposed for acquisition in Gurugram. The notification under Section 4 of Land Acquisition Act was issued in 2009 for acquisition of 1,417.07 acres situated in Sectors 58 to 63 and 65 to 67 of Gurugram.
It allegedly compelled the landowners to sell their land to colonisers at lower price than the price prevalent before the notification.
The notification under Section 6 of the Act in 2010 comprised 850.1 acres. Finally, the award was issued for only 85.95 acres. The FIR adds that the release of land to coloniser companies was wholly mala fide, taken with a view to benefit private firms.
It was the apex court which had directed the CBI to investigate the case, vide its order dated November 1, 2017.
The next date of hearing in the case is March 1.
