By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Sept 6:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested an Executive Director (Projects), Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), CGM, GAIL and three others including Director of a Vadodara (Gujarat) based private company, in a Rs 50 lakh bribery case.
GAIL is a central public sector undertaking under the ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India and it is considered a national gas agency
The arrested persons are: Krishna Ballabh Singh (K B Singh), Executive Director (Projects), GAIL, NOIDA (Uttar Pradesh), Surendra Kumar, Director, Advance Infrastructures Private Limited, Vadodara, Davinder Singh, Chief General Manager, GAIL, Sunil Kumar, Senior General Manager, MECON Limited and an employee of the sub-contractor of Advance Infrastructures Private Limited.
The FIR (No. RC2182023A0012 dated September 04 has been registered under section 120 B of Indian Penal Code and sections 7, 7 A, 8,9,10 and 12 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988(Amended in 2018) against the accused, the CBI statement read.
Those named in the FIR include: K B Singh, Surendra Kumar, Advance Infrastructures Private Limited, Davinder Singh, Sunil Kumar, Harsh Naresh Yadav (Badli, Delhi) and Suryavesh Attar Singh alias Billu Yadav (Jhajjar, Haryana).
A case was registered against Singh and others based on the allegations that Singh in conspiracy with others was extending undue favour in connection with SAPL (Srikakulam Angul Pipeline) (Andhra Pradesh to Odisha) and VAPL(Vijaipur Auraiya Pipeline) (Madhya Pradesh to Uttar Pradesh) Projects of GAIL. Surendra Kumar, Director, Advance Infrastructures, had arranged the bribe amount of Rs.50 lakh, to be paid to Singh in lieu of expeditious clearance of pending bills and also for overlooking default in work. The bribe amount was to be delivered through Harsh Yadav and Suryavesh Attar Singh alias Billu Yadav.
Acting on the tip-off, the CBI laid a trap at NOIDA, apprehended Singh and recovered the amount. Besides, the searches were conducted at the premises of accused including at Delhi, NOIDA, Visakhapatnam and Vadodara which led to recovery of incriminating documents and digital evidences etc..
Singh was accused of overlooking the defaults of the Advance Infrastructures and pressurised his subordinates to clear its pending bills without recovering penalty for the incomplete work. Besides, although as per practice the payment was to be made through Vendor Invoice Management System, he pressurised his subordinates to release the payment offline.
Advance Infrastructures had undertaken pipeline laying work on behalf of GAIL for Srikakulam Angul Pipeline project. It was also working as a sub-contractor of JSC OGCC KazStroy Service, a frontal company of KSS Group of Kazakhastan, having office in Haryana. JSC OGCC KazStroy Service was awarded pipe laying and other work of Vijaipur Auraiya pipeline project of GAIL. Both these projects were being supervised by Singh.
