ACB to probe bribery charges against Satyendar Jain

A BEL employee has alleged that the firm paid Delhi minister Satyendar Jain ₹7 crore for waiving off the penalty imposed for delay in installation of CCTV cameras in the Capital.

The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has started a preliminary probe (PE) into allegations that the officials of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) paid a bribe of ₹7 crore to Delhi minister Satyendar Jain and other government officers when the firm was installing CCTV cameras across the city in 2018-2019, senior officers aware of the probe said.

The probe was launched on a complaint by Manmohan Pandey, a former BEL employee. (HT Photo)

The anti-graft unit has started recording the statements of BEL employees, who were part of the project, officials added. ACB is likely to approach the department of vigilance, seeking prosecution sanction to file a first information report (FIR) under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Jain, the officials added.

The probe was launched on a complaint by Manmohan Pandey, a former BEL employee. According to ACB officials, the complainant submitted a signed copy of the minutes of a meeting related to a disciplinary enquiry against him in September 2019, during which Pandey put on record that the person in charge of the CCTV project said Jain(then the public works department minister) asked for a bribe of ₹7 crore.

BEL said the man was dismissed from service and was thus was making false allegations.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rejected the allegations as false. “This is again a false case as all other cases against AAP leaders. Just like the BJP could not prove other cases in the court, this case will also fall flat in the court,” the party said in a statement.

Madhur Verma, head of ACB, confirmed that the unit launched a preliminary enquiry after receiving a complaint against Jain. Jain is currently in Delhi’s Tihar jail in connection with a probe into an alleged money laundering case.

In his complaint, Pandey said that during eight sittings of the disciplinary inquiry against him on September 4, 2019, the committee discussed news reports about the Delhi government threatening to impose ₹16 crore fine on BEL for the delay in installation of CCTV cameras, ACB officials said.

“....Although it was not a subject of inquiry, the presenting officer, who said he was also in-charge of the CCTV system project, said Satyendar Jain had asked for ₹7 crore to waive off the proposed fine of ₹16 crore,” the complaint said.

In August 2019, the Delhi government said they would impose a penalty of ₹16 crore on BEL and threatened to blacklist the firm. The government had said that instead of installing 140,000 CCTV cameras by November 22, 2019, BEL only installed 16,000 cameras.

Officials said that the complainant also alleged that the officer(in charge of CCTV project) acknowledged that as BEL is a public sector unit (PSU), it cannot pay directly to the PWD minister, and that the payment had to be done through vendors.

When contacted, BEL said, “The minutes of the meeting being referred to is actually the submission of Mr. Pandey in the enquiry proceedings through an e-mail, which was taken on record by signing of all those present during the inquiry.”

The spokesperson said that BEL had ordered disciplinary proceedings against Pandey and two others for serious misconduct of unauthorised access to confidential information beyond the given mandate, stealing proprietary data of BEL, and sharing company related confidential information (pertaining to a project of national importance) with unauthorised person/s.

“The three were then dismissed from service and a complaint was filed with the cyber cell….Even one of the defence forces of the country also filed an FIR with the Delhi Police’s crime branch for leaking confidential information on the dark web. Pandey’s submission during the probe includes the allegation against Delhi CCTV project, which was strongly refuted and recorded in the inquiry proceedings. As they have been dismissed from the services of the company on proving of grave charges, they are trying to malign the image of the company by bringing baseless allegations in media and other forums,” the BEL spokesperson added.

Pandey, however, denied the allegations. “I am the whistleblower on ₹7,900 crore scam in which CBI has filed a case. I worked there for 37 years. In July 2018, I was investigating officer in the Indian Air Force scam case. I brought out the corruption. They dismissed my findings and charge sheeted me for exceeding the mandate that was given to me. It was during the enquiry that the matter of (Delhi) government imposing fine (on BEL) was discussed. The presiding officer then told us that it was a ploy. Jain asked us for money, which was to be used for the assembly elections,” he alleged.