Former UP chief secretary Neera Yadav surrenders, sent to #Dasnajail
Former UP chief secretary Neera Yadav surrendered before a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court at Ghaziabad on Monday evening and ordered to be lodged at Dasna district jail to serve her remaining sentence which was awarded by the CBI court on November, 2012 in connection with a case related to irregular allotment of plots in Noida.
Dasna jail authorities said that Yadav had her normal dinner and also took her breakfast on Tuesday morning.
“She also asked for newspapers and lodged in women’s barrack,” said SP Yadav, Dasna jail superintendent.
Earlier on November 20, 2012, Yadav was awarded three year rigorous imprisonment in connection with irregular allotment of plots in Noida during the time she was serving as the chairperson cum chief executive officer Noida from 1994 to 1995. The CBI investigations were undertaken following an order by the Supreme Court in 1998 upon a writ-petition filed by Noida Enterprenuer Association against New Okhla Industrial Development Authority in 1997.
Then, the CBI undertook investigation into nearly 36 instances of irregular allotment/conversion of plots in Noida. Both Neera Yadav and then serving IAS Rajiv Kumar were charge sheeted in the case in 2002.
Following their conviction on November 20, 2012, both were released on personal bond as the three years sentence did not require immediate arrest. They later challenged their conviction and went into respective appeals before the Allahabad High Court. During the pendency of the appeals, the High Court had stayed their conviction.
February 24, Justice Harsh Kumar dismissed Yadav’s appeal and also cancelled the bail bonds and sureties.
“The bail bonds furnished by appellant in court below stand cancelled and sureties stand discharged. The appellant who is not present will forthwith surrender before the trial court to undergo remaining sentence,” The High Court order said.
Same day, the High Court also dismissed the appeal filed by IAS Rajiv Kumar and also asked him to surrender before the trial court at Ghaziabad. However, Kumar is yet to appear before the court. During his conviction in the case in November, 2012, Kumar was serving as UP principal-secretary (appointment) at Lucknow.
Neera Yadav, a 1971 batch IAS officer, became UP’s first woman chief secretary during Samajwadi Party government in 2005. She took voluntary retirement 2008. This was her second conviction in Noida land scam.
Earlier in December, 2010, Yadav was also awarded four years imprisonment for criminal-conspiracy and corruption-charges in a similar case related to allotment of plots in corporate group-housing scheme, which was launched for industrial and institutional units in Noida. She was later lodged at Dasna prison in Ghaziabad but was released after several days after she applied for bail at Allahabad High Court.
Apart from Yadav, then Flex Industries managing director Ashok Chaturvedi, too, was pronounced guilty by the CBI court in its December, 2010 order. Both Yadav and Chaturvedi are on bail in the case.
