A Rupees 2 cr bribe, an arrested MHA official and a Rs 722 cr NHAI contract
New Delhi: When the CBI had arrested a Section Officer in the Ministry of Home Affiars in September this year for trying to bribe a DIG-level agency official with Rs 2 crore, the case drew reasonable interest, with questions being raised as to which case could warrant a Rs 2 crore bribe to "get it settled".
Fresh raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation have now revealed that the probe the MHA official was trying "to settle" was related to alleged irregularities in a Rs 722.24 crore Highway contract awarded to Soma-Isolux, in which the role of several NHAI officials had come up.
The central agency has now started probing the role of LP Padhy, CGM (Technical), NHAI in the Rs 2 crore graft case. CBI officials had on Friday (November 22) conducted raids at Padhy's third floor office in NHAI's Dwarka headquarters, and collected a horde of documents and files pertaining to the case. The raid at NHAI headquarters was later confirmed by agency officials as well.
While Padhy was not present in his office during the raids, CBI officials spoke to his personal secretary Sushil, with respect to his boss' links to officials of Soma-Isolux and Soma Enterprises. In fact, the CBI had issued a notice to the NHAI under section 91 of the CrPC on Friday itself, asking for any meetings or contact Padhy might have had with officials of Soma Enterprises. Interestingly, in the notice, a copy of which has been reviewed by the Millennium Post, the CBI has asked for Padhy's visitor logs, specifically information on any meetings with Dinesh Chand Gupta, PR Rao or Khem Singh and on whether any calls were received from three particular mobile numbers.
Gupta is a representative of Soma Enterprises and was arrested by the CBI in a trap case along with the MHA Section Officer, Dheeraj Kumar Singh. Rao is the Vice-President of Soma Enterprises and was also arrested by the agency in the same case a few weeks ago. Further, Khem Singh is listed as a Senior Manager Business Development and Contracts with Soma Enterprises, and is also now being probe by the agency in this case.
Agency sources had earlier said that the MHA official was trying to settle a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) against Soma-Isolux. But sources with direct knowledge of the fresh raids said that the PE is also looking into the role of senior NHAI officials in alleged irregularities in the Highway contract worth over Rs 700 crore.
The NHAI had signed a concession agreement with Soma-Isolux Kishangarh-Ajmer-Beawar Tollway Pvt Ltd in May 2009 as part of the National Highways Development Project Phase-III, which was financed by the World Bank. The project involved the six-laning of a 92.3 km stretch of National Highway-8. However, sources in the central agency said that this project came under the CBI's scanner only while it was investigating a separate PE.
A senior official with direct knowledge of the matter added that several other top NHAI officials might also come under the scanner as part of the agency's probe in the case.
