CCTV project corruption case: The anti-corruption branch (ACB) of the Delhi government has registered a case against former PWD minister and senior AAP leader Satyendar Jain levelling allegations of corruption and bribery in connection with the Rs 571 crore CCTV project, an official said on Wednesday.
An FIR was registered against the former Public Works Department (PWD) Minister on Tuesday under section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, after receiving previous approval from the competent authority.
Received bribe of Rs 7 crore
According to Madhur Verma, Joint Commissioner of Police (CP) and Head of ACB, Jain is accused of taking Rs 7 crore as a bribe to waive a Rs 16 crore penalty for delay in setting up cameras. The penalty related to significant delays in installation of CCTV cameras under a Rs 571 crores project aimed at setting up of 1.4 lakh CCTVs across 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi.
"Jain is accused of arbitrarily waiving liquidated damages worth Rs 16 crore imposed on Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for delays in installing CCTV cameras across Delhi. The waiver was allegedly granted after receiving a Rs 7 crore bribe," Verma said in a statement.
"During the course of verification at ACB, an officer of the BEL, well versed with the facts of the case, was examined who supported these allegations and provided a detailed complaint in the instant matter," he said.
'Project was executed in a shoddy manner'
Multiple complaints have suggested that the project was executed in a shoddy manner, with several cameras found to be non-functional at the time of handover, he said.
"As per the complaint, not only liquidated damages of Rs 16 crores were waived off but also repeated orders of installation of an additional 1.4 lakh cameras were further given to BEL. The complainant further informed that the bribe amount of Rs 7 crores was paid through the same contractors who got an additional order of 1.4 lakh CCTV cameras.
There have been many other instances of complaints stating that the entire CCTV installation project was carried out in a shoddy way and many CCTV cameras were dysfunctional even at the time of taking over of the project by the PWD. The bribe payments were made through different vendors by artificially enhancing the order values placed with these vendors. The relevant documents are being obtained from PWD and BEL and are being scrutinised."
The FIR under Sections 7/13 (1)(a) of the POC Act and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered at Anti-Corruption Branch and a comprehensive investigation has been launched to unearth whole conspiracy and fix the role and culpability of the alleged PWD Minister, officials of PWD and BEL.
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