By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, September 15
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday raided several places and arrested seven people, on charges of obtaining Rs 56 crore contract for construction of Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) in Odisha, through fraudulent means.
The arrested people include 05 middlemen, an employee of the Central Public Sector Undertaking-Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited, Kolkata and a Rajkot based construction company owner.
The accused were identified as: Hetalkumar Pravinchandra Rajyaguru, Proprietor, “Hetalkumar Pravinchandra Rajyaguru”, (Rajkot, Gujarat), Shashank Kumar Jain (Kolkata, West Bengal), Somesh Chandra( Noida, Uttar Pradesh), Veer Thakkar ( Borivali, Mumbai), Rajiv Ranjan (Pandav Nagar Complex, Delhi), Tarang Agrawal( Delhi) and Ashish Rajdan, Secretary to the CMD of the Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited. They conspired to obtain the contract by obtaining inside information about the bids after the tender was floated.
Based on the information that certain people were demanding bribe to get the contract for constructions of EMRS, an FIR ( RC2182023A0013 dated September 15) was registered by CBI/ AC-III, New Delhi, under sections 7 A,8 and 12 of the PC Act 1988 (as amended in 2018).
As per the FIR, Jain, Chandra, Thakkar and Ranjan, had been obtaining huge bribe in the name of unknown officers of Bridge and Roof Company, from private contractors including Rajyaguru, to ensure the award of the tender floated by company, floated in June. For this Thakkar, arranged a meeting with Rajyaguru, in which Jain assured him that the funds were being provided by the Central Government and he will make a huge profit and as such he should quote the rates suggested by him.
On July 24, Jain informed Chandra to ask Rajyaguru to submit price bids at lower than 7 % of the rate given in the NIT since there were many bidders. On July26, Jain informed Chandra that a total of five bidders had filed the bids, of which three had qualified and Rajyaguru was one among them. Chandra informed Thakkar and Ranjan that the said tender will be opened on July 31 and the bribe amount should be sent to Jain. On July 27, Jain asked Chandra to inform Rajyaguru that a mail has been sent from the company for online verification in the context of the tender.
On August 11, Chandra informed Ranjan that some token money of the total 4 % of the tender value will have to be sent to Jain. Of this 3 % of the tender value was to be given to the officers of the company and 01 % was to be divided between Jain and Ranjan.
According to CBI, while conversation about the contract was going on between above middlemen and Rajyaguru, on August 10, Jain informed Chandra that he has ensured that the EMRS Odisha tender worth Rs, 56 crore is awarded to Rajyaguru. Resultantly Rajyaguru paid different amounts to Jain, Thakkar, Chandra and Ranjan directly or through hawala channels, on different dates between August 12 and September 11.
Since the bribe amount was expected to be delivered to Jain any time on September 15, the CBI promptly registered the FIR and subsequently nabbed the culprits.