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Tughlakabad land scam rocks House

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MARCH 31. The Tughlakabad land grab scam, which made news last year in view of the involvement of senior Congress leader and MLA, Sishpal, today rocked the Delhi Assembly with the entire Opposition BJP staging a walkout in protest against what they alleged was an attempt by the Congress Government to protect the corrupt and shying away from coming out with facts on the issue.

The BJP members were not satisfied with the reply of the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and wanted her to spell out the name of the Congress MLA who had been raided by the CBI and cases lodged against him for land grab and encroachments. They time and again sought an assurance from the Chief Minister that the report on the entire matter would be placed in the House, a demand which was opposed by the Chief Minister on the plea that investigations were still in progress and law and order was not under the Delhi Government.

Earlier, replying to a question by Roop Chand (Cong), Ms. Dikshit said the CBI and Crime Branch had registered separate cases in the Tughlakabad land grab case under various sections against a number of culprits. Preliminary investigations had indicated that the land grab and its subsequent illegal sale was carried out by local politicians, police officials and officials of the land and revenue departments after they entered into a conspiracy. These politicians in league with the property dealers prepared fraudulent documents about transfer of land and ownership deed and sold the same to the unsuspecting people.

Ms. Dikshit informed that till now around 10 people had been arrested in connection with the case. Two interim chargesheets had been filed in the court and investigations in other cases were going on. At this the BJP asked the Chief Minister to give out the name of the Congress MLA who had been raided in connection with the land grab case and against whom cases had been registered. This was resisted by the Chief Minister who said that CBI and Crime Branch were not under her and if the Central Government has anything to state on the matter it was most welcome to do so. But this reply did not satisfy the BJP members who were on their feet protesting. After sensing that their protests had made little impact, the entire Opposition led by the Leader of the Opposition, Jagdish Mukhi, walked out.

The Tughlakabad land grab case had hit the headlines last year when the CBI had raided the premises of a number of politicians, police officials and revenue department employees charging them with entering into a conspiracy to grab government land and selling it by using illegal and fraudulent means. Among those raided included the Deputy Leader of the House, Sishpal, against whom various cases have been registered by both the agencies. In fact, Mr. Sishpal, sitting MLA from Tughlakabad, had submitted his resignation from the post of Deputy Leader of the House but it was rejected by the Chief Minister as the Congress had termed the raids and subsequent registration of cases as politically motivated.

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• New DDA chief
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• Tughlakabad land scam rocks House
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