Evidence of huge cash deposits, investments gathered
*Associates of IAS officer, Engineering firm also raided
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 22: Tightening its noose on former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik, the Central Bureau of Investigations today carried out searches at 30 locations including his house and premises linked to him and other persons in Rs 2200 crore Kiru hydroelectric power project corruption case.
During today’s searches, the CBI has gathered evidence of huge cash deposits, investment in fixed deposits and properties in various cities. Besides, digital and documentary evidences have also been gathered, an official statement issued by the CBI this evening over the day-long raids said.
Over 100 officers of the CBI including many from Jammu and Kashmir were involved in the raids. A First Information Report (FIR) on bribery charges in Kiru project has already been registered at Jammu wing of the CBI. However, in today’s searches, the CBI teams from Jammu, Srinagar, Chandigarh, New Delhi and some other cities were involved.
Besides Malik, houses and premises of some of the staff associated with him were also searched. Click here to watch video
Thirty locations raided by the CBI officers were located in Jammu, Srinagar, Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Baghpat, Noida, Patna, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Barmer, Nagaur and Chandigarh.
Premises linked to Malik were searched at Asian Games Village, RK Puram and Dwarka in Delhi, Gurugram in Haryana and Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh.
Premises of associates of former chairman of Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited and senior IAS officer Navin Kumar Chaudhary and officials of Patel Engineering Limited, Mumbai were also raided by the CBI sleuths during the day-long operation to gather more evidence in the bribery charges in Kiru hydro-electric project scam.
Sources said the ancestral house of Malik at village Hisavda in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh was searched. The CBI teams started search at Hisavda house of Malik at 6 AM with the assistance of local police.
Satbir Malik, a family member of Malik was questioned at the house about assets of the former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.
Malik was not present in the house, sources said. Later, in a post on X, Malik revealed that he was admitted in the hospital.
Sources said the CBI is gradually tightening its noose on Malik in Kiru power project allotment case.
As per the sources, the CBI suspects that money trails in allotment of Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project leads to the chemical firms in New Delhi which were raided on January 28 this year.
Some of the entries by one of the leading companies have been made in the firms and the investigators suspect that the money has gone to the pocket of one of the prominent beneficiary of the kickbacks.
Documents and entries in the banks were collected by the CBI to pursue the money trail.
“During searches, evidence of huge cash deposits, investment in fixed deposits, investment in properties in various cities, digital and documentary evidence, etc. have been recovered,” a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
This was the sixth round of searches in the case as the CBI has already carried out similar operations on April 21 and July 6 in 2022; May 17 and December 2 in 2023 and January 28 in 2024.
The last round of searches in January took place at 15 places including 14 locations of chemical firms in New Delhi and house of an Engineer in Kishtwar.
Raids in December were spread across three locations, including the premises of Kanwaljeet Singh Duggal of Mainstream IT Solutions Private Limited and D P Singh. Three premises of the company and Duggal in Delhi and one each in Shimla, Noida and Chandigarh were covered during the operation.
The case pertains to alleged corruption in awarding a civil-work contract related to the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project (HEP) worth Rs 2,200 crore, the officials said.
Malik, who was the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir from August 23, 2018 to October 30, 2019, had claimed that he was offered a Rs 300-crore bribe for clearing two files, including the one pertaining to the project.
“The case was registered on allegations of malpractices in the award of the contract worth approximately Rs 2,200 crore of civil works of the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project (HEP) to a private company in 2019,” the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had said after the registration of case on April 22, 2022.
The agency has booked Navin Chaudhary and other former officials of the Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited — M S Babu, M K Mittal and Arun Kumar Mishra — and Patel Engineering Limited.
“Though a decision was taken in the 47th board meeting of CVPPPL (Chenab Valley Power Projects (P) Ltd) for re-tender through e-tendering with a reverse auction after the cancellation of the ongoing tendering process, the same was not implemented (according to the decision taken in the 48th board meeting) and the tender was finally awarded to Patel Engineering Limited,” the FIR has alleged.
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