Malhotra in custody of CBI for 14 days

Aug 08: After the hunt of almost two weeks Malhotra got into the custody of CBI. On Tuesday a special court at Tis-Hazari ordered CBI to take Malhotra in custody for 14 days.

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Judge S.K. Kaushik allowed for such long period of custody as CBI earlier pleaded before court for the same to have extensive investigation of the multi-crore land scam. CBI counsel Virendra Kumar argued that the accused is needed to verify the authenticity of the documents seized from his house related to various lands & plots.

CBI’s senior officer said that longer custody period was requested to interrogate the names and identities of others involved in the scam and to find out if money made through such frauds have been invested or not and if yes where it has been channelled.

“Considering the extent of investigation to be carried out by the CBI, I am satisfied that the 14-day custody is justified,” the special court Judge said while granting.

Defence counsel of the accused denied the association of the accused to any land scam and said that CBI has not produced any such document which sufficiently relates the accused to the scam.

Malhotra’s house was raided on July 27. CBI registered an FIR on July 24 th against Ashok Malhotra and officials of DDA for acquiring plots meant for the slum dwellers in a fraud way to sell them at higher prices.

CBI has called DDA officials to for the investigation of the conspiracy and will also try to uncover the suspected nexus of some politicians, bureaucrats and land mafias.

CBI has also contacted Income-Tax department to furnish the details about the wealth of Malhotra to discover the sources of his property.

Whole phenomenon exposed many things. First thing is the deep-rooted corruption in any department of government and the fact that finance minister has been able to catch low tax payers and big tax evaders often take the shelter of corruption rampant in the administration.