Engineer, contractor held for Rs 4.6 crore fraud in Delhi irrigation department

New Delhi: The Delhi government's anti-corruption branch (ACB) has arrested a suspended executive engineer and a private contractor for committing over Rs 4.6 crore fraud in the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Department, an official said on Monday.

The accused, Gagan Kureel, then Executive Engineer of CD-VII Division (currently under suspension), and Arun Gupta, proprietor of M/s Baba Construction Company, allegedly facilitated fraudulent payments of over Rs 4.6 crore for civil works that were never executed, they said.

The case came to light following a complaint received by the vigilance branch of the department. A preliminary inquiry revealed irregularities related to drainage and road projects in Siraspur village, north Delhi, which were found to exist only on paper.

"During the verification, it was found that in four separate cases, 100 per cent of the tendered amounts had been disbursed despite no physical work being carried out. This included drainage and road projects in Siraspur village, North Delhi and maintenance work in Burari," Joint Commissioner of Police (ACB) Madhur Verma said.

According to investigators, M/s Baba Construction Company had been awarded three tenders worth approximately Rs 5.3 crore for the construction of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) drains and roads in Siraspur. Despite no work being done on the ground, Rs 4.2 crore was released to the contractor fraudulently.

In another case, M/s Amba Construction Company received Rs 43.74 lakh against a contract valued at Rs 38.98 lakh for repair and painting works at the CTP Network in Burari. Again, physical verification revealed that no work had been carried out at the site.

Further inquiry revealed a sophisticated pattern of fraud involving the submission of forged bank guarantees, manipulated Computerised Measurement Books (CMBs), and fabricated material test reports to falsely establish the execution of works.

Three fake performance bank guarantees worth Rs 2.24 crore were found to have been submitted to the department. Verification later confirmed these to be coloured printouts and not issued by any legitimate bank.

The original CMBs related to the works were missing, and the executive engineer reportedly gave evasive responses when questioned. Mandatory test checks and certification processes by supervising engineers were also found to have been deliberately bypassed.

Both accused were taken into custody and booked under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and erstwhile IPC. Prior sanction under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, was obtained before initiating legal action.