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The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet in the Gomti Riverfront scam in a local court here on Wednesday.
The CBI chargesheet includes the names of half-a-dozen accused, including the then executive engineer Roop Singh Yadav who was arrested last year. The matter is still under investigation.
According to sources in the CBI, the team probing the scam claimed to have gathered enough evidence and on Wednesday it submitted the chargesheet against Roop Singh Yadav, then executive engineer of LDSC, Lucknow (also then incharge superintending engineer of XII Circle of Irrigation Works, Lucknow).
Besides Yadav, the others charge-sheeted include Raj Kumar Yadav, the then junior assistant in Irrigation Works, Lucknow; Himanshu Gupta, director of M/s KK Spun Pipe Pvt. Ltd; Kavish Gupta, director of M/s KK Spun Pipe Pvt. Ltd; Badri Shreshtha, senior advisor, M/s Brand Eagles Longjian JV, and lastly Ms KK Spun Pipe Pvt. Ltd.
It may be mentioned here that in November last year, the CBI had arrested the then executive engineer and senior assistant of the Irrigation Department in Uttar Pradesh for their alleged role in irregular implementation of the Gomti river channelisation and Gomti Riverfront development projects.
The accused have been identified as Roop Singh Yadav, the executive engineer who was earlier posted with the Lucknow division of Sharda Canal and also held the additional charge of superintending engineer of XII Circle; and junior assistant Raj Kumar Yadav. The first accused has now retired.
The agency had registered the FIR on November 30, 2017, following a reference from the state government and the notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training.
The case was earlier lodged at Gomti Nagar police station in Lucknow.
It is alleged that there were several irregularities in the implementation of the projects involving about Rs 1,500 crore. The notice inviting tender (NIT) for the works was not published and the funds were diverted. There was a pooling of tenders in four major works of the Gomti Riverfront Development project, which included the construction of the diaphragm wall, construction of intercepting trunk drain, construction of rubber dam and preparation of vision documents, the agency said.
The agency said the accused persons favoured some contractors and executed the agreements with them on the basis of forged documents without the publication of NIT in newspapers.
In the FIR, the CBI had named the then chief engineers Gulesh Chandra, Qazim Ali and SN Sharma; the then superintendent engineers Akhil Raman, Shiv Mangal Yadav, Roop Singh Yadav and Kamaleshwar Singh; and executive engineer Surendra Yadav.