Power Grid Corporation Executive Director BS Jha and five Tata Projects officials, including its Executive Vice President Desh Raj Pathak and Assistant Vice President R N Singh were arrested by the CBI in connection with bribery allegations to favour the private company, officials said on Thursday.
The arrests came after the agency conducted searches at 11 locations on Wednesday and Thursday and recovered Rs 93 lakh allegedly from the premises of Jha in Haryana’s Gurugram.
The CBI has claimed that Jha had entered into a criminal conspiracy with others to extend favours to Tata Projects for various work, including preparation of inflated bills, early clearing of bills and price variation clause, in return of bribes.
Tata Projects was given the contracts under World Bank-funded North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The project was aimed at improving power infrastructure in the region.
Jha, who was posted in Arunachal’s Itanagar, was under CBI surveillance during which the investigators claimed to have unearthed his alleged corrupt behaviour. The agency claimed it got inputs about him receiving bribes allegedly from the Tata Projects.
The role of Tata Project officials came to light during Jha’s surveillance. Pathak is Executive Vice President and SBU Head (Transmission and Distribution) India , SAARC and SEA at Tata Projects Limited while Singh is Assistant Vice President Business Head--Distribution came to the fore while the CBI was keeping an eye on Jha's activities.
"We adhere to strong norms in all our business transactions and have zero tolerance to any compromise on the same. We would extend our complete support to the relevant authorities," a spokesperson of Tata Projects was quoted by PTI as saying.