Lucknow, Oct 25 (IANS): Former Samajwadi Minister Azmat Ali, his cousin Ubaid, and Ghaila village gram Pradhan, Iqbal, have been booked in a case related to a land in Uttar Pradesh's Wazirganj.

The complainant, Amit Mehrotra, alleged that the minister and aides duped him of Rs 22 lakh in the name of a land which they never got registered in his name.

Mehrotra, in his FIR, said that the deal was struck by Ubaid who showed him a piece of land in the Ghaila village for Rs 32 lakh.

Ubaid told Mehrotra that he, Iqbal and Azmat had joint ownership of the land.

After the deal was finalised, Mehrotra gave Rs 22 lakh in the presence of his counsel Mirza Majhar Abbas and Shahab in 2010.

But Iqbal and Azmat did not sign on the agreement paper saying they will do so when Mehrotra will pay the remaining sum for the land at the time of registration.

A year later, Mehrotra went to meet Ubaid to register the land in his name. He took the remaining sum of Rs 10 lakh with him to finalise the deal.

It was alleged that the Ubaid and others resorted to dilly dallying tactics and gave him a cheque of Rs 22 lakh saying they did not want to sell the land.

"In the meantime, Iqbal was appointed as a Minister for State in the Samajwadi Party government and I was threatened when I insisted on the registry," he said.

Mehrotra said he inquired about the land and was told by the villagers that the above-named persons had grabbed lands in different localities in the city.

"The cheque they gave me was dishonoured by the bank," he said.

Mehrotra says he is now apprehensive of his life and people named in the complaint should be held responsible if any untoward incident happened to him.

Additional DCP, West Zone, Chiranjeev Nath Sinha, said that an FIR under the charges of criminal breach of trust, dishonesty, and criminal intimidation was lodged against the three persons and a probe was underway.