Pan-India CBI raids over Rs 2200 crore contract allotment of Kiru power project

SRINAGAR — The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday carried out pan-India raids to probe the malpractices in the allotment of Rs 2200 crore civil works contract of Kiru hydroelectric project to Patel Engineering Limited by the Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited (CVPPPL) in 2019.

As per the news agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the CBI today conducted searches at 14 locations including Jammu, Srinagar, Delhi, Mumbai, Noida, Trivandrum (Kerala) and Darbhanga (Bihar) to probe allegations of malpractices in the allotment of civil works contract of Kiru power project.

The searches were carried out by the sleuths of CBI at the residences of the accused including Navin Choudhary, who was then chairman of CVPPPL, and others named in the FIR.

The CBI has registered FIR against Choudhary, MS Babu (then managing director CVPPPL), Arun Kumar Mishra (then director CVPPPL), Patel Engineering Limited and unknown others after the J&K Government recommended an inquiry into it.

Based on reports of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and J&K’s Power Development Department, the J&K Government last month wrote to the CBI to probe allegations of malpractices in the allotment of the contract.

The perusal of these reports reveals that guidelines regarding e-tendering were not followed while awarding the civil works package of the Kiru hydroelectric project.

In the 47th Board of Directors (BOD) meeting of CVPPL, it was decided to re-tender works through e-tendering with the reverse auction after the cancellation of ongoing tendering. But in the 48th meeting, the decision was not implemented and the contract was awarded to Patel Engineering Limited.