Discrepancies in CBI closure report in Jain's case: Vigilance

The Delhi government's vigilance department has put a spanner in the closure of a graft case against minister Satyendar Jain, saying the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report has 'lacunae and discrepancies', requiring further probe in the matter of hiring a creative team for the PWD, officials said on Monday.

The assistant director of the vigilance department had filed a written request before a special court, seeking two months' time to study the 'lacunae and discrepancies' in the CBI's closure report in the case to file an appropriate protest petition before it.

The officials said the issues raised by the department may require further investigation by the agency.

The special court has now granted time till January 31, with a direction that the final protest petition must be filed under the signature of either the secretary or the deputy secretary of the vigilance department, they said.

The CBI had closed the case against Delhi PWD minister Jain and others, related to alleged corruption in hiring a creative team for the department, in April last year after a four-year-long investigation during which it failed to gather enough evidence to prosecute the Aam Aadmi Party leader, the officials said.

The CBI had filed its closure report in April last year before the special court, which may or may not accept the final report submitted by the federal agency, they added.

The CBI registered the case on May 28, 2018 on a reference from the office of the lieutenant governor of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi to investigate the allegations of irregularities in awarding a tender to a private firm for hiring a creative team for PWD projects on the basis of a report from the vigilance department.

The agency had conducted a year-long preliminary enquiry after receiving the reference. It had levelled serious allegations of corruption against the minister and converted the enquiry findings into a first information report (FIR).

"A preliminary enquiry was earlier conducted to look into the matter. It was alleged that the accused persons, while working in the capacity of public servants, deliberately changed the terms and conditions in the NIT (notice inviting tender) to make the private company eligible for participating in the tender," a CBI spokesperson had said after the agency filed the FIR on May 29, 2018.

It was also alleged that the budget requirements were met in an unauthorised way under some other unrelated heads, which were found improper and in violation of various guidelines and regulations, the agency spokesperson had said.

Besides Jain, the CBI had also booked several senior PWD officials of that time, including Sarvagya Kumar Srivastava, engineer in chief, Manu Amitabh, principal director (projects), A K Pait, deputy director (administration), P C Chanana, project manager, and other unidentified officials.

In its enquiry findings, the agency had alleged that Jain had entered into a criminal conspiracy with the PWD officials to award the tender to Soni Detective and Allied Services for hiring the creative team for the department's projects.