The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Madhya Pradesh here on Thursday arrested vice president of Bengaluru- based IT company Antares Systems Ltd (ASL), in connection with the Rs 80,000 crore e-tendering scam.
Suspect Manohar MN was arrested after interrogation. EOW officials said Manohar was involved in the scam along with the directors of OSMO IT Solutions.
Madhya Pradesh state electronic development corporation (MPSEDC) that was acting as a nodal agency for E-tendering had signed an agreement with TCS and ASL for managing the software. During investigation, it was found that a DEMO department that has been created in this portal for training and practice of the department officials and bidders was being used as a vehicle for opening up the encrypted bids submitted by rival bidders.
The process was manipulated by copying original bids of rival companies onto this DEMO department folder soon after the last date of submission of tenders, sources added.
Copied tenders were then opened up in DEMO department by using the digital signatures of concerned tender opening authorities to reveal the bid value of rival companies, they say.
By mapping the same digital signatures, lower bid value was filled in the tenders in intended beneficiaries and encrypted in the DEMO Department. The encrypted values were then pasted onto the rate filled in the database record of the intended beneficiaries.
Notably, a few IAS officials are also under scanner of the probe agency.