Lucknow, Mar 15 (IANS): Twelve persons, including former officials of the Kamla Nehru Educational Society, revenue officials and the then additional district magistrate (ADM) have been booked for fraud, tampering with government documents and damage to public property.
The case was lodged by ADM (finance & revenue) Prem Prakash Upadhyay, who stated in his complaint that land in the Ahmadpur village was illegally handed over to the society as freehold property in connivance with the revenue department employees.
The case has been filed in Rae Bareli.
Those under investigation include then ADM (finance and revenue) Madan Pal Arya, deputy registrar, revenue department (Sadar) Ghanshyam, revenue clerk Ram Krishna Srivastava, administrative officer in collectorate, Vindhyavasini Prasad.
Kamla Nehru Educational Society members under the scanner include Vikram Kaul, son of Late Congress MP Sheila Kaul, secretary Sunil Dev, Rae Bareli resident and Trustee Sunil Kumar and the then chairman.
Earlier, city magistrate Yugraj Singh had conducted a probe into irregularities in allotment of the plot.
Complainant P.P. Upadhayay had stated that members of the society had paid off a clerk and head of the nazul department to bag a recommendation for freehold possession of land.
"No deed was signed and the Trust's application for allotment was sent on February 6, 2001, and the approval was received within six months," he said.
The probe also revealed that clerks and other officials of revenue and administration overlooked their legal obligation and forwarded the file which was replete with overwriting and content smudged with whiteners to make it a fit case for freehold allotment.
Upadhyay pointed out that the society had deposited Rs 5.37 lakh as fee instead of Rs 9.48 lakh, causing huge losses to the exchequer.
Congress MLA from Rae Bareli (Sadar), Aditi Singh, said she had written to the Economics Offences Wing and sought a probe into financial discrepancies in the Kamla Nehru Trust.
"I would like to thank chief minister Yogi Adityanath for pushing for an investigation and registering a case against officials and members of the Trust. The Gandhi family has huge stakes in the Trust with Vikram Kaul and Salman Khursheed being the members. The land which was allocated for education of girls, but was never used for this purpose," she told reporters.