Among the 20 places raided were the home and offices of Arun Kumar Sharma, deputy director of UPDESCO, which was responsible for the computerised draw of lots for allotment of plots. The CBI says the programme for the draw had been manipulated. Also raided was P C Yadav, the engineer in charge of the land department of the Noida Authority.

Several incriminating documents, CDs, pen drives, and a laptop have been recovered in the raids.

A team of sleuths was in the Noida Authority office since 7 am and staff was not allowed in. Only some land department officials were allowed in to assist the sleuths in recovering the required documents and hardware.

Sources said some big names are likely to tumble out as the allegations against the officials of Noida, the state government, and UPDESCO, include “criminal conspiracy in connection with the allotment of residential plots by falsifying electronic records knowingly and/or intentionally altering the computer source code developed for the draw of the lots for framing an incorrect electronic record containing the names of certain pre-decided applicants as successful applicants under the Residential Plot Scheme 2004(1) for which draw was held on 2.7.2005.”

Allotment of nearly 1,250 plots, costing nearly Rs 2,500 crore was done in 2005. The issue came to light after Amit Khemka, an activist, filed a complaint with the Allahabad High Court, after which the court ordered an enquiry by the CBI and “observed irregularities in the extension of dates for submission of applications, non-scrutiny of applications, reasons for awarding the work to UPDESCO for development of procedure for computerised draw of lots and manipulation in the final draw.”

The Noida Authority had moved the Supreme Court against this decision, and the apex court had stayed the High Court’s order on November 11, 2005, in a Special Leave to Appeal (Civil). It was later converted to a civil appeal.

The stay has been vacated vide orders dated November 22, 2007, of the Supreme Court after the case was withdrawn when Mayawati came to power last year. The Supreme Court had upheld the orders of the Allahabad High Court and today’s raids by the CBI are a part of those orders.