New Delhi [India], November 13 (ANI): The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on Saturday registered an FIR in opposition to unidentified individuals in reference to the alleged embezzlement of funds of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) value Rs 20 crore, in accordance with the officers.
According to the ACB, in 2019 the vigilance division of the DJB found “serious fraud” and embezzlement of DJB cash by the officers/businesses involved.
“The Vigilance Department, after scrutinizing the documents seized from the Revenue Department of DJB, has concluded that the preliminary investigation into the matter reveals embezzlement of DJB funds amounting to Rs 20 crore and above,” an official assertion mentioned.
The ACB mentioned that the division would examine the position of the DJB officers and different personal gamers within the alleged embezzlement that it claimed occurred between 2012 and 2019.
Detailing the case, the ACB officers mentioned that the DJB had awarded the work of organising automotive invoice cost assortment machines at totally different places in several DJB places of work to Corporation Bank (now Union Bank of India) for a interval of three years. It was alleged that the financial institution concerned a personal company for the organising of kiosks and assortment of payments from numerous places within the metropolis. The contract is claimed to have been prolonged now and again until the time the alleged fraud was detected, in October 2019.
“The matter was immediately brought to the notice of the Bank for recovery of the amount collected from the e-Kiosks, which the Bank had failed to deposit in the bank account of DJB during the above said period, along with penal interest and other liabilities. However, despite protracted deliberations at the senior level all this while, the Bank is apparently reluctant to return the money embezzled by its vendor to cause substantial financial loss to DJB,” the statment mentioned.
The vigilance division of the DJB additionally mentioned that the preliminary probe established embezzling of funds.
Earlier in September this 12 months Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena directed the Chief Secretary to lodge an FIR in opposition to Delhi Jal Board officers and others for embezzlement of Rs 20 crore, mentioned a press release.
The LG has additionally instructed that Officers/Officials of the Delhi Jal Board concerned within the above siphoning of funds could also be recognized, their duty mounted and a report on the motion taken thereof to be submitted inside 15 days, as per the assertion.
In a blatant case of corruption amounting to large monetary losses to DJB, money amounting to over Rs 20 crore collected as water payments from people, went to a personal checking account quite than DJB’s checking account for a number of years, as per the assertion from the workplace of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor.
As per the assertion, the DJB appointed its banker, Corporation Bank to gather water payments on its behalf via order in June 2012 for 3 years and the identical was renewed additional in 2016, 2017 and even in 2019, after the fraud was detected.
The assertion additional factors out that the financial institution, in flip, in whole violation of the phrases of the contract and within the data of DJB officers, engaged a personal company M/s Freshpay IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd. for assortment of money and cheques and for deposition of the identical in DJB’s checking account.
It was observed whereas extending the contract of the financial institution past October 10, 2019, when Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was the Chairman of DJB, that grave irregularities had occurred relating to delayed/non-deposition of money by the financial institution through the interval of contract from August 11, 2012, to October 10, 2019, the assertion from LG workplace additional mentioned.
It was noticed that various Rs. 20 crore (together with curiosity, penalty, and so forth.), although deposited by the shoppers had not been transferred into the DJB’s Bank Account. Despite realizing all this, the Board headed by Kejriwal additional prolonged the contract of Corporation Bank and in flip that of M/s Freshpay IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd., which was working because the financial institution’s assortment agent, until 2020, mentioned the assertion.
The assertion additional mentioned that what’s much more damaging is that, quite than making the erring distributors pay the swindled Rs 20 crore and punishing them, the DJB not solely prolonged their contract however elevated their service price from Rs 5 to Rs 6 per invoice. Also in baffling contrivance, DJB criminally relaxed the T1 (Transaction 1) norm that made it obligatory for the seller to deposit the money collected from the folks within the account of DJB checking account inside 24 hrs of the gathering this additional helped the distributors swindle money.
Subsequently, it was discovered that payments collected from the folks of Delhi in money have been deposited within the Federal Bank and from there it was transferred to the personal account of 1 M/s Aurrum E-Payments Pvt. Ltd., quite than getting deposited into the DJB’s Bank Account. The above association, i.e. deposition of DJB’s money in some personal checking account of a 3rd get together was in clear violation of the contract settlement between DJB and Corporation Bank. With ulterior motives of siphoning money, the Corporation Bank had tacitly accredited the above association and the DJB officers in connivance didn’t object to it, even if this transfer had put DJB funds in danger, the assertion identified. (ANI)