CBI on Tuesday claimed to have recovered over Rs one crore in cash from a General Manager of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) after a case was registered against him and his superior for allegedly favouring a construction company for various contracts.
The CBI registered a case against NHAI Chief General Manager S K Nirmal, General Manager Nitin Jain, Managing Director of Oriental Structure Pvt Ltd K S Bakshi and one of his employees S K Dikshit, the agency said.
After filing the FIR in a court, the CBI officials carried out searches at eight places in the national capital and Jaipur during which they claimed to have recovered Rs 48 lakh from Jain's house and another Rs 52 lakh from his bank locker besides 100 grams of gold.
The agency also recovered Rs 46 lakh from Nirmal's house besides 360 grams of gold and five kilograms of silver from his locker, the CBI said.
A CBI spokesman claimed that the modus operandi of NHAI officials was to eliminate all potential contenders on one pretext or the other to favour a particular company ensuring huge financial gains to it.
It has been alleged that NHAI officials entered into a criminal conspiracy with the Managing Director of the private firm and favoured his company in bagging contracts for a project in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, the spokesman said.
The work included development, operation or maintenance of four-laning of Nagpur-Betul Section of NH-69 in Maharashtra under National Highways Development Project Phase-IV on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer basis through public-private partnership.
NHAI had received 13 offers for the project out of which four were rejected by the officials allegedly on frivolous grounds at the qualification stage.
Four other companies were also eliminated from the next stage of bidding by making stipulations pertaining to submission of original documents in gross violation of the conditions of the tender, the agency alleged.
It has also been alleged that the officers of NHAI gave key confidential, strategic and vital information to the company during the process of tender which in turn helped it gain greater financial benefits. PTI
