HC unhappy over lax probe by EOW in alleged land scam in housing cooperative society

Lucknow, Sep 16 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday deprecated the "laxity" by Uttar Pradesh authorities in probing an alleged land scam by the erstwhile office bearers of a housing cooperative society in Makdoompur in Lucknow, and said that it will consider transferring the investigation to any central agency.

The matter is related to the Bahujan Nirbal Varg Sahakari Griha Nirman Samiti which was formed for the benefit of SC/ST members to whom land was given by the government.

It was alleged that the previous office bearers allotted a lot of land to members of the committee against the rules and many beneficiaries did not belong to the SC/ST category.

Justice Pankaj Bhatia of the Lucknow bench was hearing a petition filed by the Samiti to allow the current elected office bearers to take charge and stop the "expired executive" from working.

Additional Advocate General Pritish Kumar told the court on Tuesday that since the matter was of more than Rs one crore, the responsibility of investigation had been entrusted to the Economic Offence Wing (EOW).

The court was informed that the EOW team visited the crime after taking cognisance on September 10, and notices had been issued to the persons concerned on September 14 for documents related to the case.

At this, the court expressed dissatisfaction, saying the EOW action clearly showed laxity on the part of the investigating officers.

It said that there were allegations of embezzlement and fraud in the case, and in such a situation, "it is beyond comprehension to inspect the crime scene, even though the necessary documents were already on record".

The court deprecated the "laxity" by EOW and said that it would consider transferring the investigation to any central agency on September 17.

Meanwhile, a counter affidavit was filed on behalf of Praveen Singh Bafila, an erstwhile officebearer.

At a previous hearing, the court had remarked that the disease of corruption was very deep in cooperative housing societies. It ordered that the land allotments made by the Samiti be investigated and recovery proceedings initiated if required.

The court had also said that if required, action should also be taken in this case under the anti-money laundering Act. PTI CORR ABN ABN RT RT