The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday booked five officials, including an under secretary, in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), on corruption charges and carried out searches at 11 places. Under Secretary Sanjay Mehta, section officers Hemant and Vijay Pal and assistant section officers RK Arora and Mahendra Singh have been booked for alleged irregularities in the payment of over Rs 18 lakh.
According to CBI, the agency has taken action on the basis of a complaint from VK Sinha, DoPT Director (Training). Mehta was placed under suspension after irregularities were found. The CBI also booked another person, Ashok, and private vendors Institute of Public Sciences, Institute of Public Administration, Kavita Ahluwalia, Kapil Book Store and Sahej Trading Corporation. Sinha alleged an internal probe found that out of total 67 payments of Rs 9.21 crore during 2017-18, eight bills of Rs 18.17 lakh were issued fraudulently in favour of the five vendors.
“It is also mentioned in the report that during random checking of sanction orders pertaining to the financial year 2016-17, three sanction orders issued by TFA Section found to be issued fraudulently without the approval of the competent authority,” it said.
The DoPT in its complaint had stated that during the course of randomly checking of sanction orders pertaining to the financial year 2016-17, three sanction orders issued fraudulently without approval of the competent authority. The DoPT preliminary enquiry report indicated prima facie involvement of five officials of training division that include Under Secretary (training) Sanjay Mehta, section officers Hemant, Vijay Pal and assistant section officers RK Arora and Mahendra Singh.