The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will finally take over the investigation into the Rs 900 crore scam against Yadav Singh, the suspended Noida Authority engineer, who had amassed huge wealth through bribes and black money.

The Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) on black money on Tuesday directed the CBI to investigate into all the cases against Yadav.

The Akhilesh Yadav government in UP had on February 15 set up a one-man judicial commission to probe charges against Singh on February 15.

In May last year, the SIT was set up by the Supreme Court comprising two of its retired judges --Justice M B Shah, the chairman and Justice Arijit Passayat, vice-chairman, to look into the issues related to black money.

The government sources told dna that "SIT is appointed by the apex court and has the power to direct the investigating agency for such probe. After recovery of huge amount of cash from Singh's residence and other places, the SIT desired to get a money laundering case registered against the engineer. The Enforcement Directorate cannot do it due to legal barriers as there is no preliminary criminal case or predicate offence registered against him as of now."

Sources said, "The SIT had sent a request to UP government to hand over the probe to CBI for investigation. However, the state government had rejected it saying a PIL is pending before the Allahabad high court on the same issue. Later, the UP government set up a one-man judicial panel to probe the allegations."

The UP government has set up the judicial commission headed by Justice (retd) A N Verma to probe the alleged irregularities by Yadav Singh contract allotment and also his disproportionate assets. The commission was asked to submit its report within six months.

The SIT, according to sources, had taken this case of alleged tax evasion seriously and it suspects generation of a huge amount of illegal funds here, in which the I-T department has already seized huge cash and is in the process of scrutinising documents of real estate projects executed by Singh in the national capital region.

The I-T department had carried out extensive raids, in November last year, on Singh's premises and a number of companies with which his wife is believed to be associated with in Noida and other areas.

From his Noida's Sector 51 residence, IT department had found cash worth Rs 10 crore and diamond and gold jewellery of around 2kg. The department had also brought under its scanner over a dozzen bank accounts of the couple and the company operated by them.

It was alleged that Singh's scam runs over Rs 900 crore. He had got the money during his stints as the chief engineer of three authorities (Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway) during Mayawati's BSP government and the current Akhilesh Yadav government in UP.

Rs 10 cr cash, diamonds worth Rs 100 crAccording to IT officials, diamonds worth Rs 100 crore were recovered from Singh's bedroom, two kg of gold and Rs 10 crore cash was also recovered from his residence.

The cash was stashed in eight bags in a car outside Singh's house, while Rs 1 lakh was recovered from another car, an Audi, which itself is worth over Rs 90 lakh.

During the raid, the sleuths had detected 40 fake companies and 13 bank lockers.

Fake companies were registered under Singh's wife Pushpalata's name. Singh had floated a bogus company in Kolkata and later purchased plots in Noida and Greater Noida, besides selling the shares of these companies illegally.