HC relief for DRDO scientist accused in Rs 500-cr land scam

The Delhi High Court today directed the CBI not to take any coercive step against a retired army officer, now a DRDO scientist, accused in a Rs 500 crore land scam case.
Justice Ashutosh Kumar issued the direction on a plea by the scientist seeking to quash an FIR lodged against him by the agency under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and for offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy under the IPC.
The maximum punishment for the offence of cheating under IPC and under section 13 of the PC Act is seven years.
While granting the interim relief to Lt Col (rtd) M G Thimmaya, the court directed him to participate in the probe.

It also issued notice to the CBI and sought its reply on the plea by the next date of hearing on October 11.
The court also said that if the accused does not participate in the probe, the agency can take steps to cancel the interim protection.

According to the CBI, Thimmaya, while he was the Estate Manager for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Bengaluru, and property developer N H Rustumji had allegedly defrauded the authority of several acres of land acquired for it by the government.
The agency has alleged that between 2004-06, Thimmaya had unauthorisedly transferred land acquired for DRDO to the land owners causing undue gain to them and undue loss to the government.

The CBI alleged that the two filed a joint memo before the Supreme Court in a land dispute matter between land owners and the DRDO.
Thimmaya allegedly gave a memo in the Supreme Court in the land dispute matter which was different from the one cleared by the Defence Ministry, according to the CBI's case.
The vigilance department of the Defence Ministry had pegged the alleged scam at Rs 500 crore.