Former chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh jailed after being found guilty of allotting land meant for poor farmers to industrialist at favoured rates
NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - The former chief secretary of India’s most populous state has been jailed for four years after being found guilty of allotting land meant for poor farmers to an industrialist at favoured rates, the Indian Express newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Neera Yadav, who was the most senior civil servant in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, showed undue favour to the businessman by giving him residential plots in the town of Noida on the outskirts of Delhi after reducing prices and altering eligibility criteria in 1994, the paper said.
“It is beyond my view to think about involvement of bureaucrats in corrupt practices,” the paper quoted judge A.K. Singh as saying. “She (Yadav) is liable for punishment for adopting corrupt practices in allotment (of land) to industrialists which was acquired for poor farmers.”
The businessman, Ashok Chaturvedi, who is the chairman and managing director of Flex Industries and Flex Engineering, was also sentenced to four years.
According to the newspaper, Yadav is also accused of three other similar cases of unfair land allotment not only to businessmen, but also to other civil servants, politicians and relatives.
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