The engineers of the Labour and Construction Co-operative Federation (LACCFED) accused in the multi-crore scam were brought face to face by sleuths of the state investigation bureau (SIB) of the state cooperative cell probing into the scam, on Thursday. The engineers who were denying hand in the scam admitted that they were involved in the racket. They also admitted that they had handed over the ill-gotten money to a senior politician and a bureaucrat in the previous BSP government.

Executive engineers DK Shahu and SK Ojha were brought to the state cooperative cell office for face-to-face interrogation. According to the sources, Shahu told DSP, SIB, AP Gangwar and inspector SP Singh that cheques worth R4 crore was issued by him. The amount was handed over to a senior politician in the previous BSP government.

He also revealed the name of a senior bureaucrat involved in the racket. The state cooperative cell officials refused to reveal the name of the politician and the bureaucrat.

“We will grill the politician and bureaucrat soon,” an officer said.

On last Saturday, sleuths of the cell had grilled former higher education minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi. As per the sources, Tripathi told the sleuths that no project was sanctioned to the LACCFED when he was the minister and nor did he take ‘commission’ for releasing funds.

The then general manager of LACCFED, Pankaj Tripathi, chief engineer GS Srivastava and accounts officer AK Agarwal were taken into custody and grilled by cooperative cell officers.