CBI files six chargesheet against HAL official

New Delhi: The CBI has filed six chargesheet in six separate cases against a Senior Manager of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), in connection with misappropriation of funds worth around Rs 18.3 crore, officials here said on Thursday.

The chargesheet have been filed in Odisha by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the six related cases, where Babban Maitra, a Senior Manager (Finance), Engineering Division at HAL's Sunabeda unit in Koraput, Odisha had allegedly abused his official position to clear payments to private contractors, who were allegedly in on the scam.

According to the CBI, Maitra allegedly conspired to prepare false payment vouchers, user IDs and passwords for his co-conspirators. Officials alleged that Maitra then approved the false vouchers, knowing that they were fabricated to clear payments worth over Rs 18 crore to seven private contractors working with HAL.

An official said that Maitra and these seven contractors had allegedly conspired to misappropriate the funds from the bank accounts of HAL.

"Detailed vigilance by HAL and further scrutiny of relevant documents of the Bills Payable Section for the period from January 2015 to December 2015 has so far revealed that payments of Rs 1.71 crore have been illegally and fraudulently made to two private contractors of HAL without any supportive documents," Hindustan Aeronautics Limited had written to the CBI, when it had registered the case in January 2019.