RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.16: The Jharkhand High Court today directed the state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) to file an affidavit within four weeks explaining further action in the matter of “Meinhardt scam” involving Rs 21 crore of the state exchequer during Raghubar Das tenure in the state.
A single bench of Justice S.K.Dwivedi issued the direction after going through the preliminary enquiry (PE) report ACB SP Mani Lal Mandal had presented before the court after his personal appearance. With this direction, the court deferred hearing in the matter till October 3.
ACB SP Mandal while presenting the report submitted that since the cabinet had approved the proposal of awarding consultation service to Singapore-based company Meinhardt (Singapore) Private Limited, the opinion of the law department is being sought to proceed further in the matter.
The development took place after senior legislator Saryu Roy on August 11 last year knocked the high court door demanding a fair probe into the matter of awarding consultation service to a Singapore-based company, Meinhardt (Singapore) Private Limited for preparation of a detailed project report for drainage and sewage system of the Jharkhand capital.
The work was awarded to the said company on June 22, 2006 and the company was paid Rs 21 crore when Raghubar Das was urban development minister though prior to this, two companies Operation Research Group (ORG) and Span Travers Morgan, were already assigned the same work on October 11, 2003 after completion of legal formalities and the companies were about to present a DPR.
Roy through his petition has questioned how the work was awarded when the work was already assigned and the companies were about to give a detailed project report (DPR) for the sewage and drainage system of the state capital. He requested the high court to give direction for registration of an FIR in this matter alleging that DGP, ADG of Anti-Corruption Bureau, SP (ACB) besides state government has done nothing to probe the matter though the preliminary inquiry indicates a scam.
It is worth mentioning here that independent legislator Roy had also raised the issue during the Jharkhand Assembly session in 2021.
Roy said that after the formation of Jharkhand, a petition was filed in the High Court by a social worker of Ranchi, in which the court had given an important order in 2003. In this, the state government was asked to develop a sewerage-drainage system in the capital Ranchi as well. After that order, according to the order of the then Urban Development Minister Bachcha Singh, two consultants were selected by taking out the tender to reinstate the consultant.
But in the meantime, the government changed. In 2005, Raghubar Das was made the Urban Development Minister in the Arjun Munda government. He called a meeting on August 31 to finalize the DPR. Then it was decided that the already selected consultant should be removed. Later this matter also went to the High Court. According to the allegations, about Rs 21 crore was spent on this, but no work was done on the ground.
Roy also made it his election issue during the 2019 assembly elections when he defeated the then CM Raghubar Das and stopped the BJP from coming into power. After winning the election, he also demanded the Chief Minister several times to investigate the matter.
In October 2020, Chief Minister Hemant Soren handed over the investigation to the ACB which registered a preliminary inquiry in the first week of November 2020. In the third week of June 2021, the ACB had sent notices to some people, including former Chief Minister Raghubar Das, asking them to present their side but no step was taken for registration of an FIR.
Earlier, the ACB had submitted its sealed PE report which was illegible. The court had taken strong exception to this and summoned the ACB SP.
