DJB and NBCC officials are the targets of two allegations of graft, and the ED has filed a case to investigate them
The Delhi Jal Board’s tendering procedure has been the subject of two reported anomalies, according to the ED, which said on Tuesday that it has opened a money laundering investigation and searched the offices of the Delhi Jal Board’s staff as well as NBCC and a few other companies.
The searches began on Monday at 16 sites in the Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and national capital area, according to a statement from the Enforcement Directorate.
The locations of certain private firms as well as the offices of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) (India) Limited employees were searched.
The federal agency said that “ED is looking into two separate matters of irregularities in the DJB tendering process.”
It further said that a FIR filed by the CBI and the Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch led to the criminal prosecution brought under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The CBI FIR claimed that, in collusion with representatives of NBCC (India) Limited, DJB officials provided NKG Infrastructure Limited a “undue advantage” while granting the business a contract for the delivery, installation, testing, and commissioning of electromagnetic flow meters. In order to qualify for a technical bid of the tender in 2017, it was claimed that NKG Infrastructure Limited obtained “false” performance certificates from D K Mittal, the then-General Manager of NBCC (India) Limited, and fabricated deviation statements from Sadhan Kumar, the then-project executive of NBCC (India) Limited.
The ED said that NKG Infrastructure Limited “entered into conspiracy” with the then-chief engineer of the DJB, Jagdish Kumar Arora, and his junior officials during the tendering process in order to qualify for and win a contract for Rs 38 crore.
The second accusation relates to the ACB complaint from November 2022, in which it was claimed that DJB granted a contract for the installation of automobile bill payment collecting equipment in its various offices to assist customers in making payments. According to the ED, the deal was won by the Corporation Bank in 2012, which then subcontracted the work to two Chennai-based private businesses, Freshpay IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and Aurrum E-payments Pvt. Ltd.
By “not depositing the cash payment collections in the bank accounts of DJB, within the prescribed period,” these enterprises “violated” the rules outlined in the agreement, according to the agency. “Despite continued delays and non-transfer of bill payment amount collected for DJB, the said contract was initially awarded for three years and was periodically extended by DJB until the 2019–20 financial year.” “Probe found that during the demonetisation, cash collections amounting to Rs 10.40 crore were not deposited or transferred to the DJB and funds collected in 2019 were reconciled with bill payments of the demonetisation period after a gap of more than 300 days,” the ED said. According to the agency, the DJB suffered a total principle loss of Rs 14.41 crore over the duration of the contract, which is still “outstanding” with the two private businesses and its director Rajenderan K Nair.
The DJB and NBCC (India) executives, as well as the directors of the implicated private firms, had “incriminating” papers and digital devices taken from their offices by the ED investigators. According to the agency, information on several unregistered properties under Jagdish Kumar Arora’s name was also found.
