CBI had booked senior IAS officer Navin Kumar Chaudhary, former chairman of Chenab Valley Power Projects (Private) Limited, M S Babu, former managing director, M K Mittal and Arun Kumar Mishra, former directors, and Patel Engineering Limited.
New Delhi, Apr 28: According to officials, the CBI questioned former Jammu Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik for nearly five hours Friday in connection with its investigation into the alleged insurance scam in the Union Territory, which came to light after his statement that he was offered bribes to clear related files.
A CBI team arrived at Malik's Som Vihar residence in the R K Puram area of the national capital around 11.45 a.m. to seek clarification on his claims, they said.
According to officials, the exercise lasted nearly five hours and included several questions about the claims he made in his statements recorded with the CBI last year.
The CBI has questioned Malik, who has served as governor of several states, for the second time in seven months. Officials have clarified that Malik is not currently an accused or a suspect in the case. His statement was made in October of last year, after he had completed his gubernatorial duties in Meghalaya.
Following the latest CBI request for clarifications, Malik tweeted, ‘I have exposed the sins of some people by speaking the truth. Maybe that's why I've been summoned. I will not panic because I am the son of a farmer. ‘I am committed to the truth.' The CBI filed two FIRs in connection with Malik's allegations of corruption in contracting for a group medical insurance scheme for government employees and civil work worth Rs 2,200 crore for the Kiru Hydroelectric Power Project in Jammu and Kashmir.
Malik claimed that he was offered a Rs 300 crore bribe to clear two files during his tenure as governor of Jammu and Kashmir from August 23, 2018 to October 30, 2019. In its FIR, the agency named Reliance General Insurance and Trinity Re-Insurance Brokers Limited as defendants in relation to the medical insurance scheme for Jammu and Kashmir government employees, which was reportedly approved by Malik at a state administrative council meeting on August 31, 2018. The scheme was later abandoned.
“Unknown officials of the finance department of the government of Jammu Kashmir have committed the offences of criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct by abusing their official positions in a conspiracy and connivance with Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Limited, Reliance General Insurance Company Limited, and other unknown public servants and private persons,” one of the FIRs alleges.
They cheated the government of Jammu and Kashmir by causing “pecuniary advantage to themselves and wrongful loss to the state exchequer during the period 2017 and 2018,” according to the complaint.
The CBI claimed in the second FIR about alleged malpractices in the awarding of contracts for the civil work package of the Kiru hydroelectric power project that e-tendering guidelines were not followed.
“The case was registered on allegations of malpractices in the awarding of the contract worth Rs 2,200 crore (approximately) of civil works of the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project (HEP) to a private company in the year 2019,” the statement said.
The probe agency has charged former Chenab Valley Power Projects (Private) Limited chairman Navin Kumar Chaudhary, former managing director M S Babu, former directors M K Mittal and Arun Kumar Mishra, and Patel Engineering Limited.
“Though a decision was made in the 47th board meeting of CVPPL (Chenab Valley Power Projects Limited) for re-tendering through e-tendering with reverse auction after the cancellation of the ongoing tendering process, the same was not implemented (as per the decision taken in the 48th board meeting), and the tender was finally awarded to Patel Engineering Limited,” the FIR alleged. (Agencies)
