New Delhi: A special CBI court here has framed charges against former Registrar of Co-operative Societies (RCS) Narayan Diwakar and 10 others in the Rs 4,000 crore Co-operative Group Housing Societies (CGHS) scam.
Besides Diwakar, the court also framed charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and corruption against the then society president S P Saxena and secretary Ashok Goswami.
Charges of fraud were also framed against Rajesh Aggarwal, Mukesh Arora, Praveen Kumar Jain, Niranjan Singh, BM Sethi (now expired), Krishan Kumar, Kuldeep Singh and Ashwani Sharma of the Anjuman Cooperative Group Housing Society (CGHS) which was allegedly revived by all the accused to get land allotted from DDA at a cheaper rate.
"Prima facie case is made out against accused Saxena, Goswami, Aggarwal, Arora, Jain, Singh, Krishan, Diwakar, Kuldeep and Ashwani Sharma for criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery," Special CBI Judge Praveen Kumar said.
The CBI had alleged that the society was registered with the RCS in December 1983. Initially it had 90 members, who were employees of Bharat Electronics Ltd, Ghaziabad, and its freeze strength was later on fixed at 120.
In 1990, society expelled 29 of its members on account of non-payment of the funds and it also decided to quit the society as there was likelihood of land being allotted very far from their place of working.
A special CBI court had already framed charges against Diwakar and four others in the Taj housing society case, in one of two charge sheets filed in Rs 4,000 crore scam.
In the second charge sheet filed in 2006 related to Anjuman housing society, CBI had only named Saxena and Goswami. Later on supplementary charge sheet was filed in September 2009 against 11 accused, including Diwakar, Saxena and Goswami.
"Accused Sethi, who expired during the pendency of the case, and the then Deputy Registrar, had abused his official position as public servant and in pursuance of the conspiracy with Saxena and Goswami," CBI said.
It also said Kuldeep, an employee of Bharat Electronics Ltd, Ghaziabad, was one of the promoter members of Anjuman CGHS and was instrumental in the enrollment of his relatives.
The agency said Goswami took over the control of Anjuman CGHS on payment of Rs 5,100 in cash to each original member who had agreed to quit their membership in lieu of their undated resignation letters.
It also alleged Saxena and Goswami fraudulently obtained land from DDA at subsidised rates in 1999 on the strength of list of original member submitted to RCS office, with forged resignation letters in respect of 29 members expelled from Anjuman CGHS and enrolled new members in the society in their place and in the year 2001, they got the list of resigned as well as enrolled members of Anjuman CGHS approved by RCS office on the basis of forged documents.
It alleged the builder mafia conspired with the RCS and exploited provisions of Delhi Co-operative Societies Act which allows for the revival of wound-up societies.
The CBI said during May 1998 to April 1999 a number of proceedings were recorded in the Proceedings Register but the same do not bear any signature of any of the office bearer or member of the society which goes to show that the same had been subsequently manipulated.
It said Jain, an auditor submitted his report for the year 1998-99 wherein he showed total strength of the society as 63 and no member was shown as resigned or enrolled.
Investigation revealed Saxena had submitted a fake resignation and refund receipt in respect of member, who had already expired in the year 1995.
They could check or verify the records of the society wherein the details of the 29 of original members of Anjuman CGHS were very much available, it said.
Diwakar, the then RCS, has failed to issue any directions for physical verification of the members resigned or the new enrolled members, CBI said.
"The credibility of the members who either resigned or were expelled will be considered during the trial of the case and their statements cannot be brushed aside at this stage as prima facie there is evidence that forged documents were used by the accused for getting land from the DDA," the court said.
It also said from the documents and the statement of the prosecution witnesses on record, there is a grave suspicion against all the accused persons of having entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the offices of RCS and DDA.
PTI
