NEW DELHI: In his attempt to emphasise that his life was in danger and he may be forced to speak before being produced in court, Ashok Malhotra who is the alleged kingpin of the multi-million Delhi land scam surrendered to the Central Bureau of Investigation at the Zee News Studio in Noida.

Before the surrender, Malhotra during the course of his interview with Zee News had made some startling revelations. He said his life was in danger, his relatives had been manhandled at home by the CBI, and he would only reveal everything in court. He admitted to knowing some officers of the Delhi Development Authority and to have relations with some local Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. He denied ever having met Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit or having relations with Delhi Congress chief Ram Babu Sharma.

He admitted that “MLAs Kunwar Karan Pal Singh and Surendra Singh Bittoo had helped in getting the VIP numbers for his cars,” but said he had only 17 cars and six motor cycles.

He said, “There is no case against me and my property is not more than Rs 100 million”, and denied he had papers of 5500 plots.

Malhotra is alleged to have acquired land meant for slum colonies and then sold these off at exorbitant prices. 

The scam was unearthed during a CBI raid that is alleged to have yielded land papers of no less than 5500 plots in Delhi and over 50 cars with VIP numbers. The accused runs the canteen at the Delhi Vidhan Sabha and is alleged to have strong connections with key leaders across the political spectrum.

This is not the first time that an accused has surrendered in the studios of a television channel. Sahil, an accused in the drugs case against BJP leader Pramod Mahajan’s son Rahul, had surrendered to police in the studios of Aaj Tak in Srinagar in June last year.