In its remand application seeking custodial interrogation of Rajendra Kumar, the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the CBI has alleged that the accused had not only misused his official position in awarding undue favours to an accused private firm but also sought commission and bribes for such acts.
Kumar had allegedly facilitated tenders worth `9.5 crore to Endeavour System Pvt. ltd. through PSU Intelligent Communication Systems India ltd. by the tweaking the laiddown tendering norms... This besides, the tenders were “tailor-made” to suit the accused firm and also allegedly manipulated the advertisements for awarding the contracts to the accused firm.
The accused firm, in turn, diverted the bribes/commissions allegedly on behalf of Kumar to other firms promoted on his instruction in the areas of real estate and education.
“It is revealed in the investigation that huge amount of commission and bribes to the extent of approximately `3.3 crore were also received in the accounts of M/s ESPl by way of camouflaged MOUs and agreements against the contracts awarded to it by Rajendra Kumar worth `33 crores to other companies in DTl and Trade and Taxes Department of Delhi Government. These bribes and commission has been further diverted to other companies and entities in the fields of real estate, education, publication etc,” said the application presented by the CBI before the designated court.
The application also stated that the accused persons in conspiracy illegally manipulated the due process of tender by designing tailor-made pre-qualification criteria to award various work contract or without calling the tenders in favour of Endeavour systems Pvt ltd.
Another accused private person Ashok Kumar was found to be a conduit for Rajendra Kumar in looking after the business affairs of M/s Endeavour systems Pvt. ltd and was also instrumental in scouting for bribes from corporate entities on behalf of Kumar, the CBI alleged in its remand application.
“It has also emerged that said Ashok Kumar, on the instructions of Rajendra Kumar, was also instrumental in setting up enterprises viz. M/s Shantiniketan building Pvt ltd and M/s Educity Pedagogy through a set of his conduits,” the agency told the court.
During investigation it was also revealed that GK Nanda, the then Managing director of ICSIl with dishonest intentions and in criminal conspiracy with the other accused persons manipulated the tender conditions in favour of ESPl and also submitted the reply, duly corrected by Rajendra Kumar on behalf of the company to the queries raised by the new VAT Commissioner.
Meanwhile, the CBI on Wednesday confronted the accused persons with one another. The agency also presented its probe findings in its bid to extract more information.
Agency sources said that all the accused were confronted with each other to unravel the conspiracy behind the alleged scam.
“RS Kaushik, MD, ICSIl with dishonest intentions and in conspiracy with other accused persons empanelled M/s ESPl with ICSIl on the instance of Rajendra Kumar and manipulated the conditions in the advertisement in favour of m/s ESPl, though ICSIl had already emapanelled the various firms and there was no requirement of further empanelment,” said the application.
In furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, another accused Tarun Sharma presented a false information to the Project E-Mission Team constituted for designing the platform of the software to be installed in Trade and Taxes department.
“It was further revealed that Dinesh Kumar Gupta had connived with the other accused persons and arm-twisted the partners of M/s Xsys Technologiesto part with an amount of Rs 69 lacs approx( excluding the TDS) and consequenhtly a camouflaged MOU/contract was entered between M/s Xysys Technologies and M/s ESPl from their commission received for supply of Microsoft software to the tune of Rs 10.35 crores to VAT department," the remand application added.
The evidence gathered by the CBI during the probe so far were also shown shown to the accused, who were also told about the alleged monetary benefits they got by engaging in alleged corrupt practices in award of Delhi Government contracts to a private firm -Endeavour Systems.
The agency officials claimed to have found the trail of money, which was given to the accused as bribe, the sources added.
Kumar and four others were arrested by the CBI on Monday for allegedly showing undue favours to a private company in award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore. They were sent to five days CBI remand by a court on Tuesday.