Former Noida chief engineer's judicial remand extended

A local CBI court on Saturday extended by three days the judicial custody of former Noida Chief Engineer Yadav Singh who was arrested last month by the agency on corruption charges.

Yadav Singh was produced before the court of special CBI judge (Anti-Corruption) G. Sridevi by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as his judicial remand was to expire on Saturday.

The special judge extended the remand and adjourned the court till March 29, 2016.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on March 15 filed the charge sheet against the ex-Noida chief engineer and 13 others, including his wife, under section 120B of the IPC (criminal conspiracy) and Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (criminal misconduct).

Yadav Singh is alleged to have given contracts worth over Rs.10,000 crore to his cronies and facilitated allotment of group housing, and of commercial, industrial and institutional plots to many top ranking builders in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway.

Yadav Singh had earlier held the post of chief engineer with the Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities.

The CBI investigation revealed that allotment of works was pre-decided, tender formalities were wilfully violated, and the estimates were highly inflated to cause undue gain to the contractors.

Following an order by the Allahabad High Court, the CBI had registered a case on July 30 last year against Yadav Singh and other unknown persons for alleged corrupt practices in the laying of underground cables worth Rs.92.02 crore.

The Uttar Pradesh police had in June 2012 registered an FIR against Yadav Singh on the charge that he entered into criminal conspiracy with others and awarded various contracts without following the laid down procedures and thereby caused undue gains to the tune of crores of rupees to private firms and himself.

In August last year, the CBI raided 14 places linked to Yadav Singh, including one each at Agra and Ferozabad and 12 places at Noida and Greater Noida. The searches led to the recovery of documents of 38 immovable properties/houses at Noida and Agra and other incriminating documents.

The CBI arrested Yadav Singh on February 3, 2016, for "abusing his official position in awarding contracts and causing wrongful loss to the government exchequer".