Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: July 8, 2022 at 16:30IST
The Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI) Executive Director (ED) and five Tata Projects officials have been arrested, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in connection with an alleged case of bribery in which the private company was favoured.
The five Tata Project functionaries are Executive Vice-President Desh Raj Pathak, Assistant Vice-President RN Singh, Regional Project manager Nafeez Hussain Khan, and junior employees of the company Sandeep Kumar Dubey and Randheer Kumar Singh, according to CBI officials. The arrested accused also include ED of PGCI Bimlendu Shekhar Jha.
“Searches were conducted at 11 premises belonging to the said accused persons in Gurugram, Noida, and Ghaziabad, which resulted in the recovery of various incriminating documents, materials, digital devices, etc.,” the CBI stated in an official statement. Additionally, cash worth around Rs. 93 lakh was recovered from the executive director of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited’s residence.
“The arrested accused persons were produced today before the Court of Special Judge, CBI cases, Panchkula (Haryana) and were remanded to Police Custody up till July 15, 2022,” it added.
Jha, who was posted to Itanagar, was under surveillance of CBI officers when the agency received information that he was allegedly receiving bribes from executives of Tata Projects and other companies in exchange for favours, the officials claimed.
According to a statement from the CBI, Tata Projects received contracts for the Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh region as part of the World Bank-funded North Eastern Region Electricity System Improvement Project, a comprehensive plan to improve the region’s power infrastructure.
According to the officials, the CBI has alleged that Jha was acting in pursuance with a criminal conspiracy to provide Tata Projects with favours for a variety of works, including the preparation of inflated bills, early clearing of bills, and price variation clauses, in exchange for illegal gratification from the company.