Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 29: Anti-Corruption Bureau has registered FIR against the engineers of Srinagar Municipal Corporation and office bearers of NGO namely M/S Social Welfare of India for embezzlement of public money in construction of Individual House Hold Latrines (IHHL) units under Swacch Bharat Mission Scheme.
After registration of FIR and in compliance to court, searches were also conducted today in residential houses and offices of the accused persons at Jammu and Srinagar and incriminating material was seized.
The case was registered after a Joint Surprise Check (JSC), during which, it was established that vide an agreement, 218 IHHL at the rate of Rs 17490/ IHHL) and nine twin storage pits at the rate of Rs 12,000/Twin Storage Pit were to be constructed by the said NGO. Claiming the work done, the NGO submitted a completion certificate in respect of aforesaid constructions appending therein the list of beneficiaries. The Commissioner SMC got the matter verified through engineering wing of SMC comprising of the then XEN, JE and submitted physical verification report to the Commissioner that the said IHHL and twin storage pits have been constructed as per SBM/SMC guidelines, subsequent to which an amount of Rs 38,81,612 was released in favour of the said NGO.
It came to fore, during JSC, that not even a single unit has been constructed by the said NGO and engineering wing of SMC submitted false completion/verification report to higher-ups facilitating release of huge amount of money in favour of the said NGO against the non-existing works. The officers/officials of SMC in league with the said NGO by sheer abuse of their official positions and for their own pecuniary benefits, submitted false completion/verifications report thereby facilitating the release of Rs 38,81,612 thereby causing huge loss to state exchequer and undue benefits upon the said NGO and themselves.
Accordingly, case FIR N0.12/2020 U/S 5 (1) (C) , 5 (1) (d), 5 (2) PC Act-2006 and 120 RPC was registered in ACB Srinagar Branch against the officers/officials of SMC, who included then Executive Engineer SMC namely Maroof Ahmad, then Junior Engineer SMC namely Javaid Iqbal Shah and office bearers of the said NGO viz Zaheer Abbas Bhatti (Director M/S Social Welfare of India-NGO) and Ishrat Ashraf Shah, (General Secretary M/S Social Welfare of India-NGO).
The investigation of the case is going on.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel