ACB starts probe in Delhi CCTV scam

NEW DELHI: The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of Delhi police has started investigating the alleged bribery of Rs 7 crore that was paid to former Public Work Department minister Satyendra Jain by officials of Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL).
This alleged scam was first reported by The Sunday Guardian last week (‘Bribe was paid to get penalty waived in Delhi CCTV project’). Jain was allegedly paid the bribe around August 2019 after he announced that he was imposing a fine of Rs 16 crore on BEL for not meeting the deadline of installing 1.40 lakh CCTV cameras in Delhi by 15 June 2019 as was stipulated in the contract.
As per documents accessed by The Sunday Guardian, upon learning about the stiff penalty that the Delhi government was going to impose on BEL, officials concerned met Jain after which a settlement amount of Rs 7 crore was arrived at to get the said penalty waived.
These developments have been recorded in minutes of a meeting that was generated during an inquiry that was being conducted by BEL against three of its officials in a separate case during the same time period. The officials who were a part of this inquiry committee were also handling the CCTV projects.
Sources in ACB told The Sunday Guardian that the investigation has begun in the case and relevant documents have been collected and more are being sought to identify the people behind this alleged scam.According to officials, the same BEL officials and private vendors who are a part of the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) in which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR in December last year are also allegedly a part of this scam too.
As per information gathered by The Sunday Guardian, the Ministry of Defence on Sunday, taking cognizance of two related stories published by The Sunday Guardian (Sanjay Bhandari’s extradition will expose ‘irregularities’ in air command scam and No action on corrupt officials, firms in IACCS tenders graft case) convened an urgent meeting involving senior BEL officials.
The BJP on Friday announced that it was going to seek an investigation in the CCTV scam. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Manoj Tiwari, Member of Parliament from North-East Delhi, said that he was going to apprise the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena, about this scam.