Delhi Lieutenant Governor(LG)Vinai Kumar Saxena has approved a probe against former Delhi Minister Satyendra Jain under Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs seven crore for waiving off penalty of Rs 16 crore imposed on Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). It was executing a project for installation of CCTVs in 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi.
Giving details here on Saturday, Saxena agreed with the proposal of Directorate of Vigilance (DoV) to refer the matter under Section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption (PoC) Act, 1998 to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for approving investigation against the former Delhi Minister by ACB.
Jain, who was Minister PWD, GNCTD and Nodal Authority of the Project, is accused of receiving a bribe of Rs 7 crore for waiving off the penalty of Rs 16 crore imposed on Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) for delay in installing 1.4 lakh CCTV Cameras in Delhi at the cost of Rs 571 crores.
The case of corruption against Jain emerged after a complaint by an employee of BEL in September 2019, who alleged that the BEL through its vendors arranged for a bribe of Rs 7 crore for Jain. As per records, apart from the complaint, the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), GNCTD also obtained information from secret sources which corroborated the case of the complainant.
Further, according to the file, the fact that repeat orders were placed to the vendors to enhance value to arrange for the bribe money to the Minister (PWD) indicate commission of offence under PoC Act. The bribe money was allegedly paid to Jain through vendors of BEL.
Considering the information provided by the ACB and gravity of allegations/corruption involved in the matter, it was recommended that there were sufficient reasons and grounds to grant permission under Section 17 A of the PoC Act to allow ACB to conduct investigation in the matter to unearth the truth.
According to ACB, a media report in 2019 had stated that Delhi Government had imposed a penalty of Rs. 16 Crore on BEL for delay in installing the CCTVs in Delhi and a bribe of Rs 7 crore was arranged to be paid to Jain for waiving off the penalty.
The ACB had recorded the statement of the complainant, who faced the Departmental Enquiry (DE) in connection with the case.
The complainant also provided the copy of minutes of proceeding of DE against him in which he had mentioned about the incident of demand and payment of bribe amount of Rs7 Crores to Jain.
The DoV submitted that a prima facie case under the PoC Act is made out against Jain on the basis of the statements of the complainant and other evidences collected in the matter and accordingly vide letter dated 06.02.2023, comments along with supporting documents were sought from the PWD, prior to placing it before the competent authority.
The DoV also perused the comments of the PWD which could not provide satisfactory reply against the allegations saying that it was the internal matter of the BEL.
The BEL in the RTI query had also refused to give information in the matter saying it is commercially confidence and interrogatory in nature.
Reacting to the LG’s move, the AAP said the BJP is relentlessly engaging in sinister conspiracies against the Delhi government day and night to halt Delhi government's works.
“ This is the 201st case against us, like the previous 200 cases, the BJP and its central government are trying to paralyze the Delhi government because the AAP is a staunchly honest party. This case is yet another step towards suppressing the AAP. They illegally constituted the 'Shunglu Committee' and kept 400 files of the AAP government under the pretext of an investigation; they've been investigating the so-called liquor policy for two years, opening various cases with new fabricated stories, yet not a single rupee of corruption has been recovered to date,” the AAP said in a statement.
The AAP further said that the BJP didn't stop here; they fabricated this so-called Liquor Scam in which they have filed a 50,000 pages chargesheet, examined 464 witnesses, and yet haven't unearthed a single rupee of corruption.
