HC refuses stay on UPSIDC official arrest

Lucknow, Sep 19 (UNI) The Allahabad High Court today refused to stay the arrest of an Uttar Pradesh State industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) official accused of selling industrial plots at throw-away prices.

The order was passed by a Lucknow bench comprising Justice K K Mishra and Justice J M Paliwal on a petition filed by the then Tronika City project officer B S Tomar.

The Bench observed ''It is a serious economic offence, which involves scam worth several crores of rupees.'' On September 5, the state Government had allowed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to lodge FIRs against certain former office-bearers of the UPSIDC, who comitted financial irregularities in the industrial body.

The SIT placed its findings on August 17 to a government committee, comprising the Principal Secretary (Home) J N Chamber, state DGP Vikram Singh and Principal Secretary (Industrial Development) A K Srivastava.

They had accepted the recommendations and gave the go-ahead for legal procedures. Among several senior officers of the UPSIDC, the names of two IAS officers figured prominently in the findings.

They are former UPSIDC managing director Chanchal Kumar Tewari and joint managing director K Dhanlaxmi.

The UPSIDC scam surfaced soon after the Mayawati government came to power. The government appointed Balwinder Kumar as the new Managing Director of UPSIDC. After he assumed office, Kumar found that plots in Tronika City were sold at throw-away prices. Later, Kumar wrote a letter to Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh apprising him of the irregularities.

UNI