Delhi Water Board
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
The Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) has registered a case against the former advisor of the Board in connection with the scam worth crores in the tender process of expansion and renewal of sewage treatment plant in Delhi Jal Board and other matters. In this matter, the Vigilance Directorate had given a complaint to the ACB on May 10. ACB has registered an FIR against advisor Ankit Srivastava under various sections including Corruption Act, fraud and criminal conspiracy. SIT has been formed to investigate the entire matter.
The ACB, which is investigating corruption against Srivastava, has come to know about several scams, which are related to tenders and fake bills of various projects. In the case, invoices worth crores of rupees were presented without any work being done. The ACB found that due appointment process was ignored in the appointment of Srivastava in the office of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who gave undue advantage to his father-in-law Amrish Bhatia’s company in a tender related to the construction of a water body at Rohini STP. Investigation revealed that the number given in the challan for the shipment of large machinery at the site is actually the registration number of a Maruti Swift car.
Therefore, it seems that no machinery was installed at the water body site by M/s AD Hydro Numec Engineers, a company owned by Srivastava’s father-in-law, and fake invoices for the same were prepared by the company. Due to this the government exchequer had to suffer a loss of Rs 2.16 crore. The ACB cited the second complaint received by the Vigilance Directorate on May 10, which pertains to allegations of a multi-crore scam in the Delhi Jal Board under the tender process for expansion and renovation of 10 sewage treatment plants. At present, SIT is collecting information about other officers and associates of Srivastava in this case.