VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 3: The CBI has arrested two senior officials of Rail India Technical and Economic Service Limited (RITES) besides a private person in a case of gratification in awarding the tender.
The named arrested accused were identified as Abhay Kumar, Rajiv Ranjan and Avtar Singh. Abhay Kumar is the General Manager (Project) of RITES, Ranchi. He is a native of West Champaran having a house in Patna as well. Rajeev Ranjan is Deputy GM (Project), RITES, Ranchi whose house is situated at Tetar Tola at Morabadi in Ranchi. Avtar Singh is the owner of Hardev Construction Pvt. Ltd. He is a native of Farrukhnagar in Gurgaon. His office is situated at Station Road in Deoghar. They have been taken into police remand for three days.
Besides, the FIR was lodged against another private person Sashi who is an employee of M/s Hardev Construction Pvt. Ltd.
The CBI said that reliable sources informed that Abhay Kumar and Rajeev Ranjan who are attached to RITES at Ranchi entered into a conspiracy with Avtar Singh and Sashi in awarding a contract.
Both officials received kickbacks to award tender to Joint Venture company M/S HCPL-MBPL (addressed at C/o Hardev Construction Pvt. Ltd. (HCPL) and M/s Mehrotra Buildcon Pvt. Ltd. Having a registered office at Satna in Madhya Pradesh. In this regard, both the officials assured the awardee of smooth execution of work and facilitating the awardee in day to day post tender works by manipulating measurement books, variation of bills and early clearing of bills submitted by the awardee.
The CBI said that one tender related to the Patratu Project was awarded by RITES, Ranchi to Joint Venture company M/s Hardev Construction Pvt. Ltd. (HCPL) and M/s Mehrotra Buildcon Pvt. Ltd, Abhay Kumar and Rajeev Ranjan in pursuance of criminal conspiracy with Avtar Singh and Sashi activated the network for collection of illegal gratification thus causing wrongful gain to themselves and wrongful loss to the government exchequer.
The CBI revealed that Rajeev Ranjan on the instruction from Abhay Kumar contacted Avtar Singh and his employee Sashi on several occasions and demanded illegal gratification to be paid to them in the matter of awarding the tender and related issues.
On April 19, Rajeev Ranjan contacted Sashi and demanded him to pay Rs. 5 Lakh to Abhay Kumar as first instalment for the time being. Sashi in turn sought the approval of Avtar Singh regarding the payment. On April 21 Avtar Singh instructed Sh. Sashi makes payment during the same week when their bills related to the Urimari Section are cleared by RITES. Sashi in turn confirmed to Rajeev Ranjan that the amount would be paid to them after the clearance of the bills pertaining to Urimari.
Rajeev Ranjan directed Sashi to make the payment, as decided earlier after which Sashi visited RITES office at Ranchi on April 28 and made payment for Patratu tender to Rajeev Ranjan as first instalment. He in turn handed over the money to Abhay Kumar.
On the next day Avtar Singh contacted Rajeev Ranjan when he was reminded about the remaining bribe amount for the Patratu tender. Avtar Singh agreed to make a balance payment of Rs. 5 lakh. On May 31, Rajeev Ranjan contacted Sashi and reminded him of the demand of Abhay Kumar of Rs. 10 lakh, of which Rs. 5 lakh remained to be paid. Rajeev Ranjan further insisted for initial payment out of remaining Rs. 5 lakh, to which Sashi assured Rajeev Ranjan and he paid Rs 2 lakh to Abhay Kumar at RITES office, Ranchi.
