New Delhi

Land scam accused sent to CBI custody

NEW DELHI: A court here on Friday remanded Ashok Jain, an alleged associate of Ashok Malhotra who is facing prosecution in Delhi multi-crore slum rehabilitation plot scam, to seven-day custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Special Judge S.K. Kaushik remanded the accused saying he needed to be confronted with voluminous documents already recovered by the agency and also because several documents were recovered at his instance.

CBI counsel Akhilesh also told the court that the documents pertaining to alleged involvement of the accused in the Savada, Ghevra and Rohini slum rehabilitation schemes were recovered from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and, therefore, the agency needed to take him there.

Earlier, the defence counsel argued that there was no need for custodial interrogation as Jain had joined investigations and was available to the agency as and when it required.

The court, however, granted the remand saying it was necessary in the wake of the voluminous documents that have been seized by the agency.

During the course of investigation into the scam, the CBI had raided Jain’s residential premises but he went missing. The agency recovered voluminous documents and, subsequently, served a notice asking him to join investigations. Jain appeared before the CBI on Thursday evening when, following questioning, the agency arrested him.

According to the agency, Jain’s name had cropped up while investigating the Molarband slum rehabilitation plots scam in which Ashok Malhotra was allegedly involved.

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