CBI Takes Over Investigation Into Rs 126-crore Yamuna Expressway Scam

The 165-km Yamuna Expressway connects Noida with Agra.

New Delhi:

The Central Bureau of Investigation has taken over the probe into an alleged Rs 126 crore scam in buying land in Mathura for the Yamuna Expressway project, which connects Noida with Agra. Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati had started the 165-km expressway project in 2009, and her rival Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, who became chief minister after her, had inaugurated it in 2012.

Former chief executive of the expressway firm PC Gupta and 19 others are named in a First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Uttar Pradesh government in June 2018 – after BJP’s Yogi Adityanath became chief minister – into the alleged scam.

The UP government had then asked the CBI to take over the case.

A departmental probe by the UP government alleged that Mr Gupta along with some officials of the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) and other employees bought 57.15 hectares of land at seven villages in Mathura for Rs 85.49 crore with the help of 19 companies.

This land was then allegedly sold at a high rate to the YEIDA, causing a loss of Rs 126 crore.

The Taj Expressway Industrial Development Authority, which later became the YEIDA, is responsible for land acquisition and making a master plan for development along the expressway.

Last week, the YEIDA cancelled allotment of 1,000 hectares of land to Jaypee group for the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) along the expressway after the company did not pay its dues. India’s first and only F1 track is located on this land as part of the YEIDA’s special economic zone.