The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested an Integrated Financial Advisor of South Western Command and six others on charges of corruption and giving undue favour to private firms in awarding work at Army’s facility in Jaipur. The CBI said it has recovered about ₹40 lakh in cash during searches at nine different places including Jaipur, Jind, Bathinda and Ganga Nagar.
The arrested have been identified by the CBI as Uma Shankar Prasad Kushwaha, the Integrated Financial Advisor (IFA) who is an Indian Defence Accounts Service officer of 1998 batch, Ram Roop Meena, Accounts Officer posted at the IFA office, Vijay Nama , Junior Translator, middleman Rajendra Singh, who works for Tanushree Services, Sunil Kumar of Hitech Security Services , Prabjinder Singh Brar of ESS PEE Traders, and Dinesh Kumar Jindal of D K Enterprises. The arrested accused were taken into custody after producing them at a Panchkula court.
Conservancy services
The CBI alleged that Sunil Kumar, Prabjinder Singh Brar and Dinesh Kumar Jindal, the three accused representing the private firms, entered into a conspiracy and were obtaining all works related to outsourcing of conservancy services — like collection and disposal of garbage, road cleaning, tree pruning, and lifting dead animals — for various locations in South Western Command.
They charged the agency, managed undue favour in getting conservancy works bypassing the provisions of Government e-Marketplace (GeM), an online platform for public procurement, as well as for payment of bills without objection by bribing Kushwaha and officials of South Western Command, Jaipur.
“It was further alleged that the said IFA in connivance with Accounts Officer, Junior Translator, PCDA, South Western Command as well as a private person of a Jaipur based company (who was acting as the middlemen for the public servants), were demanding and obtaining illegal gratification from the private contractors,” the agency said in an official statement.
The CBI is going through various property documents relating to public servants and other incriminating materials seized during the raids.