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NPCC Director (Eng) under CBI scanner in Rs 25L bribery case

New Delhi: The Director (Engineering) of the National Projects Construction Corporation has come under the CBI's scanner in a Rs 25 lakh bribery case, where the probe agency had recently arrested seven people, including two NPCC officials, officials here said.

Manohar Kumar's role in the case while he was the Chairman and Managing Director in-charge of the NPCC between 2018 and April 2019 is being probed, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation recently raided Kumar's premises, including his NPCC office in Gurugram in connection with the case. Agency sleuths conducted searches at Uttam Nagar in Delhi and Ashok Vihar Extension in Gurugram. Retired NPCC official, Mahesh Kumar Kaushik's premises were also searched by the probe agency.

The central agency had earlier this month arrested seven people in the case, including Ramesh Kotwal, NPCC Zonal Manager in Silchar and Latiful Pasha, Manager (Engineering) for demanding and accepting bribes to process bills of a civil construction project of building Border Out-Posts for the Border Security Force worth around Rs 60 crore.

Officials said that searches from Kumar's offices in Gurugram led to the recovery of several incriminating documents, including paperwork "connecting him to Kotwal". At Kumar's residence, agency sleuths found documents related to seven immovable properties worth more than Rs 15 crore in his and his family members' names, several incriminating documents about illegal gratification, 3.4 kg of gold and diamond jewellery, and details of bank accounts under his and his family members' names, with more than Rs 25 lakh.

The CBI also found property documents of eight immovable assets worth crores from the raids at Kaushik's residence in Gurugram. Officials added that entries worth crores were also found in books of accounts of Kaushik's family members in addition to details of at least 16 bank accounts held by him and his family members.

The probe agency's FIR alleges that Kotwal had initially demanded a bribe of Rs 40 lakh to process bills of construction work undertaken by one Gautam Construction Company. CBI sleuths had arrested the seven accused in a trap, including the director of the construction company, after the money exchanged hands at a Safdarjung hotel here.

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