Supreme Court upholds conviction of former Uttar Pradesh chief secretary

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of Neera Yadav, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary, and Rajiv Kumar, IAS officer,  in the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) land allotment scam, The Indian Express reported. 

While the Court upheld their conviction, the bench of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice R Banumathi, reduced their sentence by a year. 

“On appreciation of evidence and materials on record, both the trial court and the High Court recorded concurrent findings that the appellants acted in clear abuse of position… The concurrent findings recorded by the courts below are well balanced and we do not find any reason warranting interference,” the apex court was quoted as saying.

The case relating to illegalities in land allotment was taken up by the CBI on the orders of the apex court in January 1998. The agency had filed an FIR against Yadav, who was then the CEO and chairperson of NOIDA and Kumar, the deputy chief executive for the same.