Noida: CBI goes digging to check if Yadav Singh executed project
A CBI team dug deep and unearthed cables to ascertain if former Noida chief engineer Yadav Singh had indeed executed an electricity project worth Rs. 954.38 crore
A team from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) went digging, literally, on Tuesday. They dug deep and unearthed cables to ascertain if corruption-tainted former Noida chief engineer Yadav Singh had indeed executed an electricity project worth Rs. 954.38 crore in 2011.
Officials from the Noida authority said under the project, the authority had shifted overhead electricity cables along Udyog Marg underground between 2009 and 2011. Yadav Singh, who was then the chief engineer, had monitored the work.
The CBI team -- comprising superintendent of police (SP), deputy SP, engineers and experts -- reached Noida’s Sector 6 office around 7 am on Tuesday. The team camped in Noida and went digging along the length of the project till 4.30 pm.
It met Noida authority’s chief project engineer (CPE) AK Goyal who is the nodal officer for coordination between the authority and the CBI for the probe against Yadav Singh.
“We took the CBI team to different locations on a 2-km-long stretch of Udyog Marg where electricity cables were shifted underground,” said Hom Singh Yadav, chief maintenance engineer, water and electrical wing, Noida authority.
The CBI team dug up soil at many spots along Udyog Marg to verify whether there were electricity cables underground, officials said.
“The engineers accompanying the CBI team conducted a detailed examination of the quality of work. They checked the kinds of cables put inside the tunnel,” said another Noida authority official.
The CBI has been probing corruption allegations against Singh and his family members since August 4, 2015 following an order of the Allahabad high court.
The CBI had in August 2015 lodged an FIR against Singh over allegations of corruption in allotting the `954.38-crore project to private agencies in December 2011.
Another FIR against Singh and his family pertains to allegations of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
On July 16, the Allahabad high court ordered a CBI investigation into the corruption allegations against Yadav Singh. The order was issued on a petition filed by Lucknow-based social activist Nutan Thakur.