In a significant crackdown on corruption, the Vigilance Establishment on Tuesday conducted raids at the residences of Jal Nigam officials in connection with a disproportionate assets case.
According to sources, officers are currently conducting raids in the Indiranagar, Gomti Nagar, and Vikas Nagar areas of the state capital. The area surrounding the homes has been sealed off, restricting access. Reports indicate that officials recovered numerous documents related to substantial investments made by the accused in benami properties.
The officials under investigation have been identified as project manager (C&DS department of Jal Nigam) Raghavendra Gupta, chief executive engineer Satyaveer Singh, executive engineer (now retired) Ajay Rastogi, project manager Kamal Kumar Kharbanda, and assistant engineer Krishna Kumar Patel.
These officers are accused of acquiring assets disproportionate to their income.
The Vigilance department began investigating these officials in 2019-2020 on government orders. The investigation uncovered evidence of disproportionate asset acquisition against them, leading to the filing of 11 cases, which are currently being investigated across different sectors of the Vigilance Establishment.
Investigation orders were issued on June 12, 2020, in response to complaints of corruption.
Kamlesh Kumar Kesari, the former project manager of C&DS, was found guilty of having assets disproportionate to his income.
During the investigation, it was revealed that he spent over Rs 1.78 crore on property maintenance, despite having a total income of only Rs 58.60 lakh during the prescribed period. He could not provide a satisfactory explanation for spending Rs 1.19 crore more than his total income.
Similarly, Krishna Kumar Patel, the then assistant engineer (project manager) of C&DS, was also found guilty.
Investigations revealed that he spent Rs 39.56 lakh on maintenance and properties, while his total income for the same period was Rs 29.56 lakh, indicating an excess expenditure of about Rs 10 lakh without a satisfactory explanation.
Ajay Rastogi, the former superintending engineer of the Human Resource Development Cell of Jal Nigam, has also been implicated. His total income during the prescribed period was Rs 65.90 lakh; however, he reportedly spent Rs 1.14 crore on maintenance and properties, resulting in an excess of Rs 48.27 lakh for which he could not provide a satisfactory explanation.
