MP EOW Books ‘Bureaucrats, Politicians' in Rs 3K Crore E-tender Scam

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Wednesday registered a first information report (FIR) against unidentified officers of five departments and politicians in connection with the Rs 3,000 crore e-tendering scam which had surfaced in June 2018, during the BJP regime in the state. 

The FIR has been lodged, three days after Income Tax (IT) raids on Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s office on special duty Pravin Kakkad.   

The Income Tax Department on Monday raided the homes of Kakkad and detected unaccounted cash. In a statement, the IT Department said that it ‘has detected a "widespread and well-organised" racket of collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs 281 crore during raids against close aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others. It said the sleuths have recovered Rs 14.6 crore of "unaccounted" cash, and seized diaries and computer files of suspect payments made between Madhya Pradesh and Delhi’.

 Three days after the raid, the Director General, EOW, KN Tiwari said that tampering was detected in nine tenders of five departments – Public Works Department (PWD), Public Health and Engineering Department (PHE), Water Resources Department, Jal Nigam, Project Implementation Unit and Road Development Department. “We have registered an FIR for further action. Arrests and raids will follow,” said K N Tiwari, DG, EOW. 

Also read: E-tender Scam: Attempts to Cover Up by the BJP MP Government

MP Electronics Development Department, which conducted the e-tendering, detected the tampering between January 2018 to March 2018, had forwarded the matter to the chief secretary, who forwarded it to the EOW. Then, EOW had registered a preliminary case, and investigated the issue. Hard disk and other documents seized and investigated by Computer Emergency Response Team from New Delhi accepted tampering in its report. The case was registered under sections 420, 468, 471, 120-B of the IPC, IT Act Section 66 and Anti-Corruption Act Section 7 13 (2).

An alleged breach in MP State Electronic Development Corporation (MPSEDC) software had led to the scam, forcing the government to revoke nine of its major tenders floated in 2018. Investigators believe the scam could be worth Rs 80,000 crore if the past tenders are probed.

EOW was eagerly awaiting CM Kamal Nath’s nod for the FIR in the e-tendering scam after Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERTIn) sent a ‘positive’ report on digital tampering.  The CERT-In has detected footprints of hackers who infiltrated the e-procurement software. In its report to EOW last month, CERT-In confirmed that e-tenders were ‘modified’ through unauthorised access in the software.

NewsClick had earlier reported the scam and seizure of the evidences.

 Modus Operandi

There were two digital signatures. One of the department head and another of MPSEDC and TCS officials. The tampering was possible only at these two ends. The DG said that signatures were either stolen or shared for tampering. EOW will probe involvement of the then officials and politicians.

Tampering

Tenders of five department were found tampered with in primary investigation. The tampering was done in three tenders of Jal Nigam, two of PWD, two of Water Resources Department, one of MP Road Development Corporation, one of PWD and one of the Project Implementation Unit was done.

Companies in the dock

Quotes of the companies that were awarded the tender were tampered with to help them win the contract. Most of the tenders were awarded to Gujarat-based companies including Sirothia Belji Private Limited, GVPR Company Hyderabad, Max Mentena Limited Mumbai, Hume Pipe Limited Mumbai and Madhav Infra Project Limited Bhopal. Ramumar Narwani Limited Bhopal, Software company Osmo IT Solution Private Limited Company, Bhopal.
 

The FIR created political slugfest between the Congress and the BJP

The issue of irregularities in e-tendering came up first before Assembly elections and the EOW was doing preliminary inquiry into it. But, since the scam surfaced in the BJP regime, the matter was set aside.

The e-tender scam gave ammunition to the Congress to corner the BJP government. The Congress made it a poll issue, and termed it ‘bigger than Vyapam Scam’. Congress president Rahul Gandhi promised to probe the matter if voted to power during a public rally, and said that the guilty “won’t be allowed to flee the country, like Vijay Mallya did”.

Besides, and state Congress Chief Kamal Nath had written to the Election Commission, demanding intervention for speedy inquiry of the scam. Later, the party also promised to probe the matter in their manifesto.

But, when Congress came to power in the state, it was assumed that FIR would be filed in the matter soon, but it did not happen. It was also expected that FIR may be filed after Lok Sabha elections, however, it happened much before, apparently due to I-T raids on those close to Nath. On Wednesday, an FIR was filed against politicians and officers in connection with the case.

The BJP and Congress have come in a state of confrontation with the filing of the FIR. Congress spokesman Narendra Saluja said we have fulfilled what we had stated in Vachan Patra (manifesto) about filing of FIR in e-tendering issue. Saluja asked, “Why is BJP getting restless on seeing names of unknown politicians?"

Meanwhile, BJP spokesman Rajnish Agarwal said that the party has no issue over filing of an FIR. Agarwal said they had faced emergency times too; Kamal Nath and his confidants need to reply to the revelations made in the I-T raids.  It is reported that some more revelations would come up in connection with the I-T raids in the coming time.

Also read: MP E-tender Scam: CERT Seizes 11 Hard Disks, Likely to Submit Report Within a Month