By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, June 17:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday registered a case against 21 employees of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for colluding with a contractor in violating terms of tender, thus causing a loss of Rs 22 crore to the Public Sector Undertaking (PSU).
Those booked in the case include former General Manager, Deputy General Manager, Additional General Manager and Chief Accounts Officer of BSNL Jorhat, Sibsagar and Guwahati. The case was registered on the basis of a complaint received from BSNL Assam Circle.
The BSNL had filed a complaint in August 2021, with the Anti Corruption Bureau of CBI Guwahati, about alleged irregularities in the laying of optical fibre under National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) at Jorhat SSA, Assam Circle. The contractor Ranjit Dutta and his firms, M/s Ranjit Dttta and M/s ARPEE Overseas were awarded the work.
The NOFN project aims to connect the Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country through Optical Fibre Network to provide high-speed internet services in village areas.
The BSNL employees conspired with the contractor and allowed him to violate the tender clause. He was given work order for laying NOFN through open trenching method@ Rs.90,000/- per km. Later on, he made different pleas including no right of way from owner of private land, etc. to convert open trenching method to Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) method ( @ Rs.2,30,000/- per km ) despite a provision of right of way, easement clause in the contract in the tender, the CBI statement read.
According to the FIR, a case was registered under Sections 120 B and 420 of the Indian Penal Code and 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (as amended in 2018), for suspected criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct between 2013 and 2018.
The CBI conducted searches at 25 locations including offices and residential premises of accused in Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Haryana, which led to recovery of incriminating articles on Friday.
