Addressing a press conference at Nirman Bhavan, Reddy, who returned from Hyderabad late Sunday night, said: “There will be no cancellations of the 5,238 allotments made through the draw. What will happen is that we will hold actual physical possession of these flats till allottees have been cleared by the investigation.”

Reddy said the Urban Development ministry will not carry out any investigation: “The Lieutenant-Governor has already asked Delhi Police to carry out an investigation.”

Ministry officials, meanwhile, said an allottee gets actual possession of a flat several months after its allotment. DDA officials said it took eight months for successful applicants to get possession of flats after their allotment following the draw of lots in 2006.

Reddy clarified that it is the physical possession that the UD ministry has halted, not the allotment. “Of course allottees are worried with the recent development and the allegations,” he said. “But there is no specific timeframe for the investigation to be completed — it will have to take its own course. We will ensure that it is completed as soon as possible.”

Reddy said action will be taken as and when discrepancies are found.

About how the alleged corruption could have been averted, ministry sources said the DDA could have adopted a stiffer verification process by feeding a programme to highlight duplicate names, numbers and other such discrepancies. But DDA officials contend that the land agency had a strict verification process in place after the allotment and before the actual handing over of flats.