Alaya Apt collapse co-accused arrested in Gangsters’ Act case

A real estate builder who was named a co-accused in the Alaya Apartment collapse case of 2023 was arrested in a U.P. Gangsters’ Act case in Barabanki, police said on Tuesday.

Barabanki additional superintendent of police (SP) Chiranjeev Nath Sinha, who arrested Fahad Yazdani, said he was hiding in Barabanki. “Yazdani is a key player in a fraud scheme that dupes the public and is part of a gang operating under the guise of Yazdan Infracon Pvt Ltd, a company that falsely represents itself as a legitimate builder. Yazdani and his associates allegedly swindled money by giving buyers illegal and forged land documents,” Sinha said.

Sinha added Yazdani was implicated in over half a dozen cases across police stations in Lucknow and had two more cases registered against him in Barabanki. “Investigations are also going on into the properties owned by Yazdani and his two accomplices,” said Sinha.

Yazdani has been accused of cheating a Barabanki-based businessman of ₹55 lakh.

Police said Yazdani had also duped cricketer Ravikant Shukla, who led the Indian team in the Under-19 World Cup of 2006, of ₹71 lakh. Yazdani had taken the amount from him as advance money against two flats located in a residential complex on Prag Narain Road in Lucknow.

Yazdani made headlines in the Alaya residential apartment collapse case and had been on the run for months, police said in a press note.

On January 24, 2023, the four-storeyed complex collapsed killing three people, two of whom were women, of the same family and rendering over 20 families homeless.

An FIR was registered against Nawajish Shahid, the builder of the Alaya complex and son of Samajwadi Party MLA Shahid Manzoor, his cousin Mohammad Tariq, and Yazdani. Tariq and Nawajish were arrested two days after the incident, but Yazdani remained elusive.

Police said Yazdani was first arrested by Hazratganj police in Nainital on September 8, 2023. He got out bail and was now hiding in Barabanki.