New Delhi: The CBI has "examined" former governor Satya Pal Malik in connection with two graft cases registered in Jammu and Kashmir in April based on allegations levelled by him, officials said. They said the CBI team took details of his observations earlier this week, they said. Malik was examined after his five years tenure as Governor ended on October 4, they said.
He was appointed as Governor of Bihar in 2017 after which he was sent to Jammu and Kashmir in 2018 where he oversaw the revocation of Article 370 in August 2019. Malik, who had issued statements criticising the Centre during farmers' agitation, was moved to Meghalaya where his five-year tenure ended this month.
Malik had claimed that he was offered a Rs 300 crore bribe for clearing two files during his tenure as the governor of Jammu and Kashmir between August 23, 2018 and October 30, 2019. "After going to Kashmir, two files came to me (for clearance), one belonging to Ambani and another to an RSS-affiliated man who was a minister in the previous Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government and claimed to be very close to the prime minister (Narendra Modi)," he had said.
"I was informed by secretaries in both departments that there is a scandal and I accordingly cancelled both deals.
"The secretaries told me that 'you will get Rs 150 crore each for clearing the files' but I told them that I have come with five kurta-pyjamas and will leave with that only," Malik had told a gathering at an event in Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan in October last year.
In April this year, the CBI registered the two FIRs in connection with corruption allegations levelled by Malik in the awarding of
contracts for a group medical insurance scheme for
government employees and civil work worth Rs 2,200 crore related to the Kiru hydroelectric power project in the erstwhile state. The central agency has booked Reliance General Insurance and Trinity Re-Insurance Brokers Limited as accused in its FIR related to a controversial health insurance scheme for Jammu and Kashmir government employees reportedly cleared by
Malik in the state administrative council meeting on August 31, 2018.