CBI starts probe against Noida Chairman Rakesh Bahadur

NEW DELHI: Acting on last year's order of Allahabad High Court, the CBI has started probe against Noida Chairman Rakesh Bahadur and former CEO Sanjeev Saran in connection with alleged irregularities in the land allotment by the authority.

The agency has registered a preliminary inquiry against Bahadur and Saran, who was transferred from the post by the Uttar Pradesh government in accordance with the High Court order, CBI sources said.

The CBI has approached New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) to provide documents related to land allotment during the tenure of Bahadur, they said.

In November last year, a division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Amitava Lala and Justice Pradeep Kumar Singh Baghel had directed the CBI to submit its preliminary report on the investigations within six months.

It ordered the government to transfer the two officers "anywhere away from western Uttar Pradesh".

The order was passed on a Public Interest Litigation filed by a social organisation, Madhav Samaj Nirman Samiti, whereby the appointment of the two officers to their respective posts was challenged.

Their tenure was marred by controversy as there were allegations of prime land being sold to hoteliers at a throwaway price and a consequent loss of revenue to the tune of thousands of crores.

The IAS officers had also been accused of having misappropriated a huge sum while facilitating these land deals and a case was registered against them in 2009 by the then Mayawati government which had kept them under suspension for almost three years.