Two weeks after the arrest of Sanjay Gupta, high-profile ex-IAS officer and former Executive Chairman of state-owned firm developing Metrolink Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA), a Gujarat court has ordered registration of case in an alleged scam against Kandla Port Trust’s own anti-corruption watchdog, Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) E. Ramjee, an IPS officer of the Rajasthan Cadre on deputation to the Centre-run mega port.

Curiously, both Gupta and Ramjee were allegedly involved in similar scandals: the former in alleged siphoning off of Rs 113 crore by way of fraudulent payments for land-filling, and the latter in the Rs 1,000 crore dredging work at the port, located at the Gulf of Kutch. And while the complaint against Gupta was filed by MEGA CEO Rajesh Mehta, the one against Ramjee was filed by KPT’s Trade Promotion and Public Relations Officer Sanjay Bhaty, a Class One Gazetted Officer, who said he was doing so as a whistle-blower and in public interest.

According to reports, a court in Gandhidham, on May 27, directed the local anti-corruption bureau (ACB) to lodge an FIR under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 420 (cheating) and forgery into the allegations of Rs 1,000 crore corruption in dredging contracts against Ramjee and others.

The court passed this order on a petition filed by Bhaty, who sought investigation against Ramjee and others for allegedly favouring a private company, tasked to dredge at Kandla Port to enhance its draft. Due to inadequate dredging, ships got grounded frequently, something that apparently drew attention to the scam.

In his petition, Bhaty told the court of Ms Deeptiben Rameshchandra Swaminarayan, Additional Senior Civil Judge and Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (First Class), Gandhidham, that the office of the CVC had initiated a probe in October 2011 into the allegations, whose findings suggested that the dredging scam could be of the order of Rs 1,000 crore. The petitioner also accused the CVO of threatening him with dire consequences.

Ramjee, who had joined the IPS in 1998, took over as CVO at KPT on January 16, 2012. The CVC then handed over the case to Ramjee in November 2012, who allegedly downsized recoveries from the dredging firm to just Rs 100 crore.

“The scam of this scale should have been probed by the CBI. I hope the ACB does this job properly, or we will be forced to go to the higher courts to get the matter to its logical end,” Advocate Dilip Kumar Joshi, counsel to Bhaty, told Business Line.

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