“The conspirators bought an application form and photocopied it. The dummy or photocopied forms were taken to places like Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan and distributed among residents belonging to the reserved categories,” Raj says. “They were enticed with offers of DDA flats and were made to fill up their personal details after paying Rs 5,000 for the fake forms.”

The details so obtained were used as a data bank, from which the conspirators made up fake identities to later apply for flats, he says. Under the scheme, 17.5 per cent flats were reserved for the Scheduled Castes and another 7.5 per cent for the Scheduled Tribes category.

Raj produces a letter he sent to the Commissioner, Housing, on December 2 explaining the “modus operandi” of a nexus of “DDA officers, property dealers and an agent of the ICICI Bank”, whom he identifies as Manish, a chartered accountant.

“What they have done is to collect the names and addresses of various persons, mainly from the Scheduled Castes category, and then fill up the forms for the DDA housing scheme. On behalf of these persons, the gang (conspirators) have managed to get PAN cards and loan amounts sanctioned from ICICI Bank for the application amount,” Raj wrote in a signed letter to the Commissioner.

Raj, who is the chairman of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, says he wrote over 100 letters during the months of September and October to various persons in Jhunjhunu and Jaipur, whose names figured in the DDA’s application forms.

He cites a reply from one Murari Lal Meena, a resident of Jhunjhunu, who goes to the extent of denying that he had even applied for a flat. There is also the case of Jamna Ram, a retired armyman, who claims he had indeed parted with a photocopy of his passport and ration card but failed to understand how he got himself a PAN card, on the basis of which he had supposedly taken a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh as advance for a DDA flat, for which he had never even applied for.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Economic Offences Wing, has in a letter dated January 2 asked Raj to make available the names and addresses of those who have stated that they “never applied for the housing project”.

“It is requested to provide the names of suspected fictitious applications which you might have access to,” the letter stated.

The DDA, through Neelam Chadha, Director (Housing) II, has in a November 8 response to a Right to Information (RTI) query about irregularities, attempted to distance itself from the alleged conspiracy.

“I am directed to inform that the DDA has only sold the form and collected the same through the bank. Granting of loan by the ICICI Bank through an agent, Mr Manish, and issue of PAN card are not the subject matter of the DDA and it relates to ICICI or the commissioner of income tax. A copy of your letter is being sent to ICICI as well as Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi,” the reply stated.

The response made it clear that “it is therefore requested that the matter may please be taken up with the authorities concerned as the DDA has no role in the matter”.