The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has written to the Director of Vigilance of the Delhi Government seeking permission to question the Chief Secretary DM Spolia in connection with the CNG Fitness scam that had caused losses to the State exchequer.
Spolia had served as the Principal Secretary, Transport/Commissioner and Anti-Corruption and has detected gross anomalies and rampant corruption in the State transport department.
Spolia may soon get a notice under section 160 of the CrPC for questioning by the ACB sleuths. Investigations have revealed that Messers ESP India was awarded the tender during Spolia’s tenure and there were gross anomalies in awarding the contract to this company.
Sources said on Tuesday that ACB had sent a request letter to the Director of Vigilance AB Shukla, seeking permission to question the Chief Secretary. ACB investigations have found that Spolia allegedly used his influence and the tender process was manipulated to award the tender top ESP India.
What is more interesting is the fact that former Transport Commissioner R Chandra Mohan has put a Cabinet note on the file that no new company should be given the contract in the tender process. Chandra Mohan had favoured ESP USA for the job as it was functioning as the lane supplier for the fitness and it was also a consulting firm for the same.
However, Spolia awarded the tender to ESP India by bypassing all the rules despite the fact that this company was not having any experience in this field. ACO has unearthed some crucial papers pertaining to the communication between Spolia and Nitin Manawat the owner of ESP India.
It was also found d uring the investigations that ESP India had exploited the similarity in nomenclature with ESP USA in wangling the coveted tender for CNG fitness work. Certain officials of the State Transport Department and Spolia allegedly worked in unison in awarding the contract to ESP India.
It could be judged from the very fact that during the tender process the company’s name was mentioned as ESP only but India was added after it was awarded the contract in flagrant violation of the established process.
Prior to this, the script to award the tender to ESP India was already written in a meeting held in the office of the then minister of transport on May 4, 2006. Source said that the Transport Commissioner had reportedly observed during the meeting that ESP’s proposal for maintenance contract should be processed at the earnest and the file should be put up for the approval without any further delay. It was also stated that the conspiracy to benefit ESP India was hatched in such a manner that it passed the muster without any hitch.
Those put up by the company to perform fitness test were not qualified for the job and above all the fitness certificates furnished by the company were fudged up, the sources added. It was also revealed that the company was given a free run by the Transport Department and that even the transport inspector was not allowed access to the testing centre of the company at Burari.
Interestingly four persons including Nitin Manawat the owner of ESP India and PC Tamta a Director in the company have already been arrested. Two Deputy Commissioner Joginder Singh Sharma and MA Usmani too were arrested for their complicity in the scam.
ACB had also asked for the arrest of former Joint Commissioner of Transport VK Gupta but he managed to escape the dragnet by getting anticipatory bail. More importantly Chandra Mohan and another former Transport Commissioner RK Verma have already been questioned in this regard.
Having questioned the two former commissioners, ACP sleuths are now gearing up to grill Spolia who may face disconcerting questions, top sources in the ACP added.