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CBI files fresh case in project started by SP govt, raids 40 places
The fresh First Information Report (FIR) named 16 public servants, including former chief engineers, superintending engineers, and other public servants of UP’s irrigation department, and 173 private persons and companies.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday carried out raids at 40 locations in Uttar Pradesh after registering its second case to probe alleged irregularities in Lucknow’s Gomti riverfront development project initiated in 2015 by the then Samajwadi Party (SP) government led by Akhilesh Yadav, people familiar with the development said.
The fresh First Information Report (FIR) named 16 public servants, including former chief engineers, superintending engineers, and other public servants of UP’s irrigation department, and 173 private persons and companies.
A CBI official said searches were carried out at 40 locations across 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh including Lucknow, Agra, Ghaziabad apart from one place each in Rajasthan’s Alwar and West Bengal capital Kolkata after registering the FIR on 2 July.
The project involved the construction of a rubber dam to maintain its water level, a stadium, an amphitheatre for 2,000 people, cycle and jogging tracks, a play area for children, and a musical fountain.
Once completed, the SP government promised that the project with its 33-acre green belt on both banks would place the Gomti riverfront on par with River Singapore. The project, counted by Akhilesh Yadav as one of the big-ticket projects of his administration back then, also envisaged a light-water-sound show, like the one outside Bellagio in Las Vegas.
To be sure, CBI has not named former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav or any other politician in the FIR.
Akhilesh Yadav has not reacted to the second FIR.
But his party questioned the timing of the FIR, describing the investigation “as a facade to malign the image of the previous SP government” ahead of the assembly elections early next year.
“...the question remains why this hullabaloo when UP Vidhan Sabha elections are fast approaching. Investigation cannot be used as a political ploy to divert the attention of people from pressing issues. We want free and fair investigation but this government is only interested in political vendetta,” said SP spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi.
UP minister and government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh said the CBI searches indicate “misdeeds” of the previous Samajwadi Party government. “We requested CBI earlier to speed up its probe in such scams. CBI is a central agency and works in its style,” the minister said, according to the news agency PTI.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath first recommended the CBI probe in July 2017 after a three-member panel headed by retired high court judge Alok Kumar Singh appointed soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s spectacular win in March 2017 detected several alleged irregularities. This panel found that only 60% of work had been carried out despite an expenditure of ₹1,435 crore (95% of project cost) on the project.
The first case was registered by the central agency in November 2017, in which a charge sheet was filed in February this year. In this, the agency probed 12 works worth ₹1,031 crore.
The new FIR filed by CBI focuses on a total of 661 works/contracts worth ₹407 crore awarded under the development project. The Enforcement Directorate too is investigating money laundering charges in the project.
“Maximum expenditure i.e. ₹1,350 crore out of ₹1,437 (spent so far) have been incurred on works awarded against the tenders issued by superintending engineer level and executive engineer level. These works include 208 agreements/works against 37 Notice Inviting Tenders (NITs). Out of these 37 NITs, the payment for agreements against 2 NITs was not made from the Gomti riverfront project and no agreement was done,” the FIR said, citing findings of its preliminary inquiry.
HT has reviewed the FIR.
According to the FIR, there were 25 instances where irrigation department officials forged documentation in the files to claim that the notice inviting tenders (NIT) were published in newspapers and that bids were received. CBI found that firms that were, according to the records, supposed to have sent their bids, insisted they did not send any.
“In 5 NITs, which were published in newspapers, alleged competitive bidders L2/L3 have denied purchase/submission of tender documents. In 27 direct supply orders and 2 selection bonds, the tender norms were not followed and supply orders/selection bonds were issued to suspect beneficiary firms/companies,” the FIR said.
Among those named by CBI in the FIR are former executive engineer Roop Singh Yadav, former superintending Engineer Mangal Yadav, ex-chief engineers Siddh Narayan Sharma and Om Verma, and then executive engineer Arvind Singh Yadav.
The new FIR also names a French company based in Strasbourg, which was given the contract for supply and design of an international standard musical fountain water show at the riverfront in Lucknow. The FIR says the contract was given on a quotation basis though documents were forged in the department’s records to claim that a tender was floated. Officials also issued the supply order without getting the requisite approvals. The FIR says the firm has already been paid 5.59 lakh Euros ( ₹4.62 crore).
