HC orders CBI probe in Noida Chief engineer Yadav Singh graft case

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday ordered a CBI probe against tainted Noida official Yadav Singh, whose disproportionate assets were exposed in a raid by the Income Tax department several months ago.

Allahabad high court chief justice Dr D Y Chandrachud gave the order for a CBI inquiry on a PIL moved by Right to Information activist Nutan Thakur, wife of suspended IG-rank IPS officer Amitabh Thakur.

Yadav Singh, who was holding triple charge as engineer-in-chief of NOIDA, Greater NOIDA as well as Yamuna Expressway Authority, was reportedly yet another blue-eyed boy of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his Rajya Sabha leader cousin Ram Gopal Yadav, who calls the shots in large parts of western Uttar Pradesh.

The PIL sought a CBI probe into the disproportionate assets acquired by Yadav Singh as well as into his meteoric rise in the official hierarchy from a small time assistant engineer to engineer-in-chief of three most lucrative organisations of Uttar Pradesh in no time.

Interestingly, the Akhilesh Yadav government had allegedly moved heaven and earth to prevent a CBI probe. During the pendency of the PIL before the high court, the state government even went to the extent of moving a special leave petition before the country’s Apex court to restrain lower court from hearing the petition.

However, the Supreme Court did not do so following which the high court has finally put Yadav Singh in the dock.

The country’s premier investigation agency will now look into accusations of large-scale bungling and corrupt practices of Yadav Singh from whom the income tax department was understood to have recovered about Rs 10 crores in cash besides documents relating to assets worth hundreds of crores.

He had executed projects worth around Rs 8,000 crore in Noida in the last 12 years, the Noida authority has said in a report.

The figure excludes Singh's involvement in the authority's land allotment process for commercial, industrial and residential projects.

Singh was involved in infrastructure projects such as Ganga water supply, sewage pipelines, drainage, hospitals, parks and the metro. In the electrical department, Singh had signed bonds of more than Rs 500 crore in last nine years. Signing a bond means releasing funds to firms after work is executed.

After the tax raids on Singh and companies related to his wife Kusumlata, the authority cancelled several projects.

It was only after much media bashing that the official was suspended by the state government.