Chief Engg, AEE, MD, DGM arrested by SVO for graft deal

First time: foreigner held paying Rs 1.80 lakh
Sanjeev Pargal

JAMMU, June 12: For the first time, the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) today arrested a foreign national and Managing Director of a Multi National Company (MNC) along with his Deputy General Manager (DGM), a Chief Engineer of Mechanical Engineering Department and an Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) as soon as the MD and his associate paid Rs 1.80 lakh corruption to the Government officials for securing Rs 30 lakh worth contract of Weigh Pads.
A First Information Report (FIR) No. 8/2012 has been registered against all four accused at the police station of Vigilance Organisation under relevant provisions of anti-corruption laws and Section 165 RPC.
Official sources identified four arrested accused as Zahoor Ahmad Zargar son of Abdul Hamid Zargar, a resident of Hyderpora, Barzulla, Srinagar, Chief Engineer of Mechanical Engineering Department, Jammu, Ranjan Kumar Langar son of Makhan Lal Langar R/o Laxmi Nagar, Sarwal, an AEE in Mechanical Engineering Department, Celvin Yoon, R/o South Africa, a Managing Director of Cas India Private Limited, Gurgaon, a Multi National Company and Anil Dhar son of O N Dhar R/o Uttam Nagar, New Delhi, Deputy General Manager of the same MNC.
Soon after the arrests were made this afternoon from the office of Mechanical Engineering Department at Vikram Chowk, the SVO officials conducted simultaneous raids in the houses of the Chief Engineer at Hyderpora, Barzulla in Srinagar and Sidhra in Jammu and Langar’s Sarwal residence and recovered a large number of documents pertaining to their investments in banks and other financial institutions, bank accounts and lockers etc.
The documents have been seized for scrutiny, which would be conducted tomorrow.
The Vigilance Organisation, through proper channels, has informed South African Embassy in New Delhi about the arrest of their national, which was a legal formality for arresting the foreign national.
“This is for the first time that Managing Director of a MNC has been arrested by the Vigilance Organisation on the charges of bribing the State Government officials’’, sources said.
Giving details of the scam, sources said, the Vigilance Organisation had developed a very specific input through its very confidential sources that a Multi National Company was going to strike a deal with top officials of Mechanical Engineering Department at their Vikram Chowk office this afternoon. The arrival of MNC’s MD and another representative had been kept under strict surveillance.
As soon as the MNC’s MD and DGM entered the Mechanical Engineering Department office at Vikram Chowk, the Vigilance officials posing as normal visitors took their position. When the MD and the DGM paid Rs 1.80 lakh worth corruption to the Chief Engineer and the AEE, the SVO officials caught all the four red handed.
Rs 1.8 lakh cash was recovered from the possession of both the officials of Mechanical Engineering Department in the presence of a Magistrate and independent witnesses. The cash was seized and made official property.
All four accused including two officials and two MNC representatives were subjected to questioning on spot during which they confessed payment and receiving of corruption amount. The Vigilance officials also seized certain documents pertaining to the scam and shifted all four accused to the police station of Vigilance Organisation.
They would be produced before the court tomorrow morning to take their remand, sources said.
Giving details of the scam, they said Cas India Private Limited, Gurgaon had figured at No. 2 in the tender floated by the Mechanical Engineering Department last year for purchase of portable Weigh Pads (Dharamkanta) in the year 2011 for Transport Department including the office of RTO Jammu.
The company, which had lowest tender and had figured at No. 1 reportedly didn’t fulfill proper specifications. The Mechanical Engineering Department had cancelled their tender.
Cas India Private Limited had figured at No. 2.
Sources said the Chief Engineer and the Assistant Executive Engineer had called representatives of the MNC for `negotiations’ on Rs 30 lakh worth tender.
“It appeared that during `negotiations’, the deal was settled for much more amount than what was paid today. The MD and the DGM of the company paid Rs 1.80 lakh to the two officials today afternoon when they were arrested’’, sources said.
After the arrests this afternoon, the Vigilance teams conducted searches at the residences of Zargar at Barzulla and Sidhra and Langar’s at Laxmi Nagar, Sarwal.
“We have come across certain documents pertaining to investments of the two officials in the banks and other financial transactions. Their bank accounts and the lockers have been identified, which would be scrutinized tomorrow’’, sources said, adding the officials and the company’s representatives would be subjected to questioning tomorrow to ascertain exact amount involved in the deal.
Further investigations in the case were expected to give more clues in the corruption case, they said.