Streetlighting fraud: CBI registers first case of corruption

The CBI has registered the first case of corruption relating to Commonwealth Games (CWG), against five MCD officials and the managing director of a private firm for causing a loss of Rs 3.62 crore to the government. The charges include corruption, misuse of official position,manipulation of tender

documents and inflating costs in a Rs 345 crore project for upgrading streetlights along 101.56 km of Delhi’s roads ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

The FIR was lodged at the behest of the Central Vigilance Commission, which has found irregularities in 15 Games-related projects.

On February 12 this year, the CVC asked the CBI to investigate the case after its Chief Technical Examiner’s (CTE) wing found large-scale manipulations and tampering of bid documents to favour a Delhi-based firm, M/s Sweka Engineering Works Pvt Ltd. The CVC, which probed the case in October 2009, concluded that the MCD officials colluded with the private firm and caused a loss of Rs 3.62 crore to the government.

It was also found that the rates of some items and discounts offered by the firm were tampered with in the documents after the bids were opened, either by canceling by hand or by overwriting.

After preliminary inquiries, the CBI has booked the firm’s managing director T. P. Singh, and five MCD officials — D. K. Shagun and O. P. Mahla (both superintending engineers) and other officials including Pradeep Rawat, Rajiv V, Gurcharan Singh and Bharat Singh. "The loss to the government could be even higher than it seems now," a government source said.