VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi May 5: Petitioner Shiv Shankar Sharma who filed a PIL against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his media advisor Abhishek Prasad for misusing their offices for pecuniary gains has filed another supplementary petition in this matter alleging some senior bureaucrats are involved in the corruption.
“It was necessary to file a supplementary petition as the petitioner has got some new facts about some bureaucrats. The Jharkhand High Court may look into these matters as raised by the petitioner. We have requested an investigation by the CBI, ED, and Income tax,” said senior lawyer Rajiv Kumar who represents the petitioner.
The petition further accused Chief Minister Hemant Soren of misusing his official position to get mutation of the 1.40 acres of Gair mazaruma khas land (khata 42, plot 1013, mauja Tandwalidih, Bokaro district) in his name.
The petitioner has requested the court to order an investigation against senior IAS Sunil Kumar and others.
The petitioner said that when Hemant Soren took oath as chief minister in 2019, major departments of Jharkhand like road, rural development, and building construction were plagued by corruption. In January 2020 Hemant Soren formed a five-member committee headed by the Development Commissioner to inquire about the schedule of rate in formulating tenders besides irregularities in awarding tenders.
“But due to the continuation of the same officers in the departments like Sunil Kumar, Vinay Choubey, Avinash Kumar, and Pooja Singhal the corruption in these departments has achieved a new height,” the petition reads.
The petitioner claimed fake documents were used to get contracts by some of the companies. Referring to the case of Chatra-based Neelam construction, the petition said that the company is managed by a person who is close to a cabinet minister of the Jharkhand government, Satyanand Bhokta. Petitioner further stated that in June 2019 fake documents were used to secure the contract for the construction of ITI, Pratappur, Chatra worth Rs 7.43 Crore.
The petitioner said that the brother of another cabinet minister from Garhwa Mithilesh Thakur was involved in managing the tender. Petitioner said that one M. C. Jain had submitted fake documents for the construction of Astro Hockey Stadium and Hostel in Khunti at the cost of Rs 8 Crores approx.
“Another contractor has also submitted forged documents in the construction of a new academic building and renovation of Silli College,” the petition said. He said that tenders were awarded to people close to Chief Minister Hemant Soren through another autonomous body called Jharkhand State Building Construction Corporation Ltd. headed by Sunil Kumar, Managing Director. The petitioner has demanded the court to investigate the role of an engineer Shiv Kumar who was posted in Ranchi and Bokaro.
Petitioner stated that in Jharkhand State Building Construction Corporation Ltd, there is a committee which decides the tender. The committee consists of Sanjay Kumar Singh (Executive Director cum Chairman of the Tender Committee), Anil Chandra Odia (Joint Secretary cum Deputy General Manager Finance and Account) and Uday Bhanu Singh, Deputy GM (Advisor) CCL. Petitioner claimed that Uday Bhanu Singh is close to Shiv Kumar and he represents the interests of Shiv Kumar and Sunil Kumar.
He said that Shiv Kumar has close links with several IAS officials and has provided palatial accommodations to several IAS officials.
The petitioner pointed out that it should be probed why Sunil Kumar was not removed from his post for a fair probe into anomalies in deciding tender. He was rather placed in the charge of the Road Construction Department and Building Construction Department to mint money. He added that after the creation of Jharkhand State Building Construction Corporation Ltd., the post of MD is only handled by Sunil Kumar, except for six months when Praveen Toppo was Managing Director but did not finalize any tender.
The petitioner also claimed Punjab cadre IAS Diprava Lakra is unauthorizedly handling various issues of the government and his role should be probed.