But refusing to elaborate, area councillor Sumera said, “We just helped him (Hari Singh) fill up the form because he wanted to apply.”

Besides Singh, two others from Bayana have also landed themselves a flat in the DDA scheme. Like Singh, the two others also come from reserved castes.

The Delhi High Court had on December 16 received a complaint that some property dealers had connived with DDA officials and applied for flats under the SC/ST quota under fictitious names. The Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing is at present investigating any irregularity in the draw of lots.

Most Bayana applicants from two castes
Ram Gopal, 23, had also applied for one of 5,238 flats allotted through a draw of lots on December 16, 2008. “The councillor (Sumera) told us the MLA would help us apply and that he would also pay us money for the flat,” Gopal said.

Sumera’s son Pramod Kumar, who handles administrative affairs for the councillor since his father is “illiterate”, said, “We have helped many people in the past and the then MLA (Badhana) had supported us.”

Most applicants from Bayana, Ram Gopal said, are either from Koli or Jatav castes — both classified as Scheduled Castes. Gopal himself is a Koli. The three people whose names figured in the final list of allottees are all from the Koli caste.

Dharm Singh, 57, a tailor, said he will “inherit” the flat allotted to his father if he manages to amass the rest of the money to be paid to DDA. He also said Sumera had asked him to apply in his father’s name some four months ago, though his father, a driver with the Indian Railways, had died last February. “But we gave his details in the form since we wanted the house,” Singh said.

... contd.