India News | ACB Arrests 3 Contractors for Swindling Rs 20 Cr of DJB Funds
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Delhi government's Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has arrested three people for allegedly embezzling Rs 20 crore from the Delhi Jal Board, a senior enforcement officer said on Monday.
New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) Delhi government's Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has arrested three people for allegedly embezzling Rs 20 crore from the Delhi Jal Board, a senior enforcement officer said on Monday.
The accused were identified as 56-year-old Raju Nair, 52-year-old Gopi Kumar Kedia, and Dr Abhilash Vasukuttan Pillai, he said.
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According to the officer, DJB had awarded the work of "Setting up automotive bill payment collection machines" at different DJB offices to the Corporation Bank (Now Union Bank of India).
The machines were meant to facilitate bill payments in cash and cheques and other modes by DJB consumers.
Corporation Bank in its turn gave the contract to Freshpay IT Solutions which further gave it to Aurrum e-Payments Pvt Ltd.
The contract was valid up to October 10, 2019, but Aurrum e-payments Pvt Ltd collected the amount till March 2020, the officer said.
One of the three accused, Nair, who hails from Kerala, has an Indian passport but lives in Moscow in Russia. He was the owner and Director of Aurrum e-payment.
Kedia, another accused, was the CFO and authorised signatory of Aurrum e-payment, and Pillai was the Director of Freshpay IT Solution and also an authorised signatory of Aurrum e-payment and Freshpay IT Solution, the senior ACB officer said.
"The preliminary enquiry conducted by the Vigilance Department of DJB revealed embezzlement of DJB funds amounting to Rs 20 crore … by private persons in connivance with Corporation Bank and DJB officials," he said.
"Accordingly, a case was registered on November 12, 2022, with the Anti Corruption Branch and an investigation was taken up," he added.
In an official statement, Madhur Verma, Joint Commissioner of Police (Head of the Anti-Corruption Branch), said that Aurrum collected the amount from various kiosks in Delhi and brought it to its Connaught Place office.
The accused then funnelled the money into their Federal bank account, and transferred the rest to DJB through RTGS, he said.
Aurrum did not transfer the complete amount to DJB, nor did DJB conduct a regular reconciliation at its end, he said.
During its investigation, ACB found that Aurrum transferred the amount collected from DJB kiosks to sister concerns of Raju Nair, his relatives, and many more, through the firm's Federal Bank account.
With the DJB money, the firm paid rent and salaries of employees of Aurrum e-Payment and Freshpay IT Solution, and also disbursed it to meet other expenses of these companies using the Federal Bank account, Verma said.
"As per the contract, there must be a regular reconciliation. However, none of the parties including DJB, Corporation Bank, Freshpay IT Solutions and Aurrum e-payment reconciled the collected and deposited amount.
"Even after it has been observed by DJB that there was a pending amount on part of the vendor which was to be deposited in the account of DJB, the contract was renewed from time to time," Verma said.
"The DJB paid the transaction commission to the vendor which was Rs 5 only once from July 2012 till October 2013. Thereafter, no payment for transaction charges was paid by DJB to the vendor," Verma said.
He said the total pending amount after reconciliation was found to be Rs 14.41 crore excluding the penalty and interest which was 12 per cent per month till July 2015, and later on, 12 per cent per annum.
The end vendor of the contract was Aurrum e-payment and it was known to DJB that a heavy amount is pending on his part. Even then the DJB further awarded a contract of Spot Billing to Aurrum e–Payment in 2018, he said.
"On scrutiny of bank statement, it was revealed that Aurrum e-payments Pvt Ltd deposited Rs 4,75,20,60,130 cash in its account with Federal Bank but transferred Rs 4,66,35,04,010 only. There is a difference of Rs 8, 85, 56,120. Moreover, the complete amount collected from the kiosk of Delhi Jal Board was not deposited with Federal Bank," he said, adding further investigation is being carried out.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)