The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested an executive director (projects) and a senior general manager of the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), besides three private individuals, on charges of graft. The sum involved is ₹50 lakh.
Among those named in the First Information Report (FIR) are GAIL executive director Krishna Ballabh Singh and chief general manager Davinder Singh; and Vadodara-based Advance Infrastructures Private Limited and its director, Surendra Kumar.
Sunil Kumar, a senior manager of Mecon Limited; Harsh Yadav, a resident of Delhi; and Suryavesh from Haryana’s Jhajjar have also been listed as accused.
Undue favour shown
The agency has arrested the GAIL officials, the company director, Mr. Yadav and Mr. Suryavesh. According to the agency, the accused conspired to extend undue favour in connection with the Srikakulam Angul and the Vijaipur Auraiya pipeline projects of GAIL.
As stated in the FIR, Advance Infrastructures has been executing pipeline laying work for the Srikakulam Angul project. It is also working as a sub-contractor for JSC OGCC KazStroyService, a frontal company of KSS Group from Kazakhstan with a registered office in Gurugram, which was awarded pipeline laying and associated work in the Vijaipur Auraiya project. Both the projects were being supervised by the GAIL executive director.
As alleged, he extended undue favours to Mr. Kumar, such as expeditious processing of pending payments/bills in violation of rules and procedures, in lieu of a bribe. On June 27, the company director had approached the accused official seeking expeditious processing of final bills in respect of the first project.
Despite the insistence from GAIL’s finance division that the bills should be processed through the Vendor Invoice Management System portal, the official influenced his subordinates and ordered processing of payment in offline mode. This, given that huge recoveries had to be made from Advance Infrastructures on account of incompxlete works and some litigation, it is alleged.
In August, during the execution of the first pipeline project work, a sweating issue was noticed in some portions. In this regard, Mr. Kumar had also contacted the Mecon senior general manager to get it settled and allegedly assured him of delivery of bribe at his residence.
The FIR alleged that on August 27, the GAIL executive director had asked the chief general manager to get the Srikakulam Angul pipeline de-watered and re-tested. However, the next day, the company director contacted the executive director to get the matter sorted, stating that emptying all the water was not feasible for the company.
Acting on a tip-off that the bribe would be delivered, the agency laid a trap and made the arrests. “Searches were conducted at premises belonging to the accused in Delhi, Noida, Visakhapatnam and Vadodara,” said an agency official.
