A Delhi court has reserved its order on bail pleas for former DJB Chief Engineer Satish Chander Vashisht and another accused, Vinod Chauhan, in the STP tender scam. The Anti-Corruption Branch opposed the pleas, citing evidence of their involvement.
The Rouse Avenue court on Thursday reserved an order on the bail plea of Satish Chander Vashisht, former Chief Engineer of Delhi Jal Board (DJB). He has been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) in the DJB STP Tender scam case. The court also reserved the order on the Anticipatory bail plea of Vinod Chauhan, whose name has surfaced during the investigation of the case.
ACB Opposes Bail Pleas
ACB opposed both pleas on the ground that there is sufficient evidence against them. Special Judge (MP-MLA Cases) Dig Vinay Singh reserved the order till September 21 after hearing the submissions of the counsel for the accused and the Public Prosecutor for the ACB. Investigation Agency filed replies opposing the applications.
Allegations Against Former Chief Engineer
While opposing the bail, the ACB stated in its reply that Satish Chander Vashishth was posted as Chief Engineer (SDW), Delhi Jal Board from the year 2018 till October 2022 and was responsible for the work related to the STP tender process. The ACB said that he was holding a key technical and administrative position in the process of finalisation of technology and preparation of tender conditions relating to the STP projects.It is stated that Vashishth initiated the relevant proposals concerning adoption of IFAS technology with fixed media for the upgradation and augmentation of existing STPs and further, issuing of corrigendum which also restricted the conditions in tender.The ACB also said that the Investigation has revealed that various suggestions regarding the terms and conditions of the proposed DJB tenders were communicated by Raja Kumar Kurra of M/s Euroteck Environmental Pvt. Ltd. to Nagendra Yadav through WhatsApp messages, with instructions to incorporate the same in the tender conditions. Thereafter, within a period of one or two days, the changes so suggested were incorporated in the tender documents by S.C. Vashishth, including through issuance of a corrigendum or addendum. The manner and timing of incorporation of these changes indicate that the suggestions originating from Kurra were acted upon and incorporated in the official tender process through the intervention of Vashishth, the ACB said.
Allegations Against Vinod Chauhan
While opposing the anticipatory bail plea of Vinod Chauhan, ACB Stated in its reply that in between the finalization of the Terms of reference of STP Tender (between 21.12.2021 and 23.12.2021) an agreement was executed on December 22, 2021, between M/s Euroteck Environmental Pvt. Ltd. and M/s Srijanhar Enterprises, a proprietorship concern of accused Pankaj Verma (nephew of Vinod Chauhan) wherein it was decided that M/s Srijanhar Enterprises was appointed as an authorized agent for the State of Delhi to market and sell the products dealt with by M/s Euroteck Environmental Pvt. Ltd.The investigating agency has alleged that this agreement was made at the instance of Vinod Chauhan. As per the agreement, an amount equal to 3% of the total invoice amount received by M/s Euroteck Environmental Pvt. Ltd. has to be transferred to M/s Srijanhar Enterprises. ACB said that the investigation found that M/s Srijanhar Enterprises neither performed any work nor marketed and sold the products of M/s Euroteck Environmental Pvt. Ltd. Hence, the said agreement was just a facade to receive commission or bribe money from M/s Euroteck Environmental Pvt. Ltd.Consequently, M/s Euroteck Environmental Pvt. Ltd. made payment to the tune of Rs 2,71.63,130/- (2.71 crores) in the bank account of M/s Srijanhar Enterprises in Kotak Mahindra Bank. Thereafter, Rs 1.22 crore was transferred to M/s Dhanvine Engineering Pvt. Ltd. from M/s Srijanhar Enterprises. Further, Rs 81 lakh was transferred from M/s Dhanvine Engineering Pvt. Ltd. to Vinod Chauhan, the ACB alleged.It is also alleged that A tax invoice of M/s Kanchuki of March 25, 2023, amounting to Rs. 88 lakhs was submitted by the applicant to disguise the true nature of the transaction. On Scrutiny of the account statement of M/s Dhanvine Engineering Pvt. Ltd., it is found that the aforesaid amount was received by Vinod Chauhan in his personal account, not in the account of M/s Kanchuki. Moreover, this amount was received on March 22, 2023, whereas the invoice was made on March 23, 2023, after the transaction was made. Further, M/s Kanchuki was engaged in the business of "Trading of Chemicals" and was not involved in the business of "Consultancy", ACB said.
Other Irregularities and Arrests
It is alleged that the investigation has disclosed that the technical proposal for augmentation of Rohini STP from 15 MGD to 25 MGD was altered by the then Minister, who approved enhancement to 30 MGD without any technical recommendation or feasibility study. Similarly, Rohini and Narela STPs were included in the project while Okhla Phase-V STP was excluded, resulting in an estimated escalation of approximately Rs.123 crore. These arbitrary decisions were allegedly taken without adequate technical justification.Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) had arrested Satyendar Kumar Jain, former Minister of Water, GNCTD, Udit Prakash Rai (IAS), former CEO, Delhi Jal Board, Nagendra Yadav, Proprietor M/s AN Enterprises, Raja Kumar Kurra, Owner M/s Euroteck Environment Pvt. Ltd., Pankaj Verma, Proprietor M/s Srijanhar and Ankit Shrivastava. They have been enlarged on bail.It is alleged that the investigation has established that one Nagendra Yadav acted as an intermediary between officials of DJB and representatives of Euroteck. KVNS Rao (Euroteck) handed the letter to Nagendra Yadav, who subsequently delivered it to the office of Satyendar Jain. It is further alleged that thereafter, Satyendar Kumar Jain directed Ankit Srivastava (a contractual consultant in DJB) to coordinate with KVNS Rao regarding a meeting after sharing the visiting card of KVNS Rao. The screenshot of the chat between Rao and Ankit Shrivastav was recovered from the mobile phone of Rao.Investigation has also revealed dilution of environmental norms prescribed by the CPCB. CPCB had prescribed eight mandatory parameters for treated effluent quality. However, only five parameters were incorporated into the tender documents, while important mandatory parameters such as pH, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total Nitrogen (N-Total) were omitted, thereby diluting environmental safeguards to give undue advantage to the above technology provider, the ACB alleged. (ANI)(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
