NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a corruption case against top officials of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and officials of Tata Consulting Engineers Limited for allegedly running a huge financial scam worth close to Rs 800 crore by manipulating contract procedures and inflating project costs.
The case is based on an initial investigation that revealed purported collusion between the officers of JNPT and private company representatives.
The CBI said the conspiracy was about inflating project estimates, restricting competition to favour certain international contractors, and consciously disregarding independent expert reports. The purported irregularities are for two major dredging phases carried out between 2003–2014 and 2013–2019.
The probe found that these activities caused serious financial loss to the public exchequer — Rs 365.90 crore in Phase 1 and Rs 438 crore in Phase 2 — mainly because of over-dredging, which was neither necessitated nor justified, but supposedly implemented to raise costs and accrue benefits to private players, it said.
Some of those referred to in the FIR are Sunil Kumar Madabhavi, who was JNPT’s former Chief Manager (Planning, Projects & Development); Devdatta Bose, then Senior General Manager at Tata Consulting Engineers Limited; the Mumbai office of the company; and two dredging companies — BoskalisSmit India LLP and Jan De Nul Dredging India Private Limited. The case also involves unidentified government officials and private citizens.
The CBI has charged that the abuse of official positions by JNPT officials resulted in direct pecuniary gains for the companies and contractors concerned. The agency suspects a nexus so deep-rooted that transparency and free competition in port development contracts were undermined.
The investigation is on to determine the scope of the irregularities and identify more people who could have been involved in the conspiracy.