Uttar Pradesh legislator arrested in fraud case

NOIDA - Independent legislator and former Uttar Pradesh minister Ashok Yadav was Monday arrested in Noida after a court denied him bail in a case of cheating.

Yadav, who represents Shikohabad assembly constituency and served as tourism minister in the previous Samajwadi Party government, was arrested after Additional District Judge (III) Sanjay Harkoli here denied him bail.

According to the prosecution, Yadav cheated Noida-based Dwarka Pvt. Ltd. of Rs.5 crore after promising the firm a plot allotment in the IT Park scheme floated by the Noida Authority in 2007.

“The firms management was introduced to Ashok Yadav, who asked them to pay Rs.5 crore as commission to figure in the draw of lots in the scheme. Yadav claimed that Noida chairman Lalit Srivastava was posted as the secretary in his department earlier and so he would abide by what he said,” the prosecution said.

The company gave him the money but their name did not figure in the allottees list. The company called up the minister who demanded an additional Rs.1.86 crore to get its work done through the Chief Minister, it added said.

Suspicious of his behavior, the company staff recorded all telephonic conversations with him in a CD and handed it over to Sector-39 police who registered a case against Yadav and his accomplices under sections 420, 467 and 468 of the Indian Penal Code.

Police filed chargesheet in the case last year but the legislator did not appear before the Noida court and was evading arrest.

Yadav then approached the high court requesting an early hearing into the bail application by the district court, but his plea was turned down.