Allahabad HC orders removal of NOIDA authority chief, CEO

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday ordered the removal of two senior but controversial IAS officers, Sanjeev Saran and Rakesh Bahadur, from NOIDA. Besides ordering a CBI probe into land allotments by the two in 2005-07, the court also directed the state government not to post the two officers anywhere in western UP.

Saran, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Noida, and Bahadur, chairman of NOIDA, Greater Noida (GNIDA) and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, are  seen as the blue-eyed boys of the state government. The order by acting Chief Justice Amitava Lala and Justice P K S Baghel came on a PIL which stated that 14 plots of land in NOIDA were allotted by the two officers to hoteliers between 2005-07, during the then Mulayam Singh Yadav regime at throwaway prices which caused a loss of Rs 4,721 crores to the state exchequer.

Rakesh Bahadur and Sanjeev Saran held the powerful posts of NOIDA Development Authority, Chairman and CEO, respectively, in the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav regime, when the said irregularities were committed. After allegations of large scale corruption in land allotments in NOIDA surfaced, an FIR was registered against the two when the Mayawati-led government came to power in 2007. Subsequently, a closure report was filed in connection with the FIR, but the high court did not accept the same.

Akhilesh Yadav, on becoming the chief minister in March, appointed the two officers to the same posts occupied by them during the Mulayam regime. A PIL was filed earlier this year by the Madhav Samaj Nirman Samiti against the appointment of the two officers, alleging misuse of powers and anomalies by the duo in allotting land acquired from farmers at throwaway prices. The PIL stated despite an FIR against the two and being charge sheeted in a departmental inquiry Rakesh Bahadur and Sanjeev Saran had got the same posts as earlier.